Alexander Wood, M.D., F.R.C.P.E. : a sketch of his life and work

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ALEXANDER WOOD

MAD., F.R.C.T.E, , &c. &c.

H Sfeetcb of bis Xife anb Work

BY THE

Rev. THOMAS BROWN, F. R. S. E.

c_

(his brother-in-law)

EDINBURGH

MACNIVEN & WALLACE
1886

EDINBURGH :

PRINTED BY FRANK MURRAY,
9 & 11 YOUNG STREET.

5u

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHY8I0IAN»
LIBRARY

CLASS

9# WOo

ACCN.

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SOURCE

-To/-

DATE'

The Sketch here given of Dr. Wood’s life and
work consists, to a large extent, of Extracts from
the Papers which he left behind him. As far
as possible it has been made an Autobiography.

The medical profession in Edinburgh has
many an honoured name on the roll of its
members, and not a few of its most distinguished
men belonged to the generation which has just
passed away. It is hoped that these brief
Memoirs may enable the reader, in some
measure, to estimate the place which Dr.
Wood held among the more eminent of his
cotemporaries, and to appreciate the ability
and zeal with which he devoted himself to the
welfare of his fellow- men in various departments
of philanthropic and Christian work.

When the following pages were first sent to
the press, they were intended merely for private
circulation. It is only in deference to earnest
appeals from various quarters that this purpose
has been departed from, and the work is now
published in the usual way.

T. B.

Edinburgh, 20 th November 1886.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

i. Childhood and School Life .... 1

ii. Edinburgh Sixty Years Ago . . . .19

hi. Student Life — University of Edinburgh . . 33

iv. Early Professional Life ..... 48

v. Homoeopathy . . . . . .54

vr. Educational and Sabbath-School Work . . 65

vii. The Hypodermic or Subcutaneous Syringe . . 107

vm. Candidate for the Professorship . . .114

ix. College of Physicians and Medical Council . . 118

x. Sanitary Reform . . . . .133

xi. Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor . 145

xii. University ...... 158

xiii. Retires from Practice — Tramways . . . 164

xiv. Public Speaking . . 169

xv. Retrospect . . . . . .175

xvi. Home Life ...... 186

xvii. Life’s Closing Prospects . . .193

xviii. Final • . . . . . 199

MEMOIR OF DR, ALEXANDER WOOD

I.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

^ ^ R. ALEXANDER WOOD held so prominent
a place in Edinburgh society, and was for
many years so influential in various departments
of professional and philanthropic work, that some
account of his life seems naturally to be called
for. Among the friends especially who were
associated with him and watched his career, it
is believed there are not a few who will welcome
any memorial, however imperfect, which may
serve in some measure to recall what he was,
and what he did in his day and generation.

He was one of a long line of Woods who have
successfully practised medicine in Edinburgh for
several generations. They were descended from
Alexander Wood, who in 1682 married the
daughter and heiress of Jasper Johnston, of

A

2

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Warriston and Curriehill. His granduncle was
Alexander Wood (‘‘Lang Sandy Wood”), born
in 1727, ‘a practitioner of more than local cele-
brity,’ one of whose sons was Sir Alexander
Wood, governor of the Ionian Islands, and one
of his grandsons became a Lord of Session, under
the title of Lord Wood.

‘ By his mother’s side he belonged to another
family of Woods, who trace their descent from Sir
Andrew Wood of Largo,’ the celebrated Scottish
Admiral, distinguished for the signal services
which he rendered to his country against the
English fleet in the reign of James IV.

‘ The two families became acquainted in a some-
what romantic way. The paternal grandfather
of Dr. A. Wood, while a very young man, was
on his way from Elsinore to Leith, when he was
shipwrecked near Elie, on the coast of Fife. He
was taken to the house of a Mr. Wood there,
whose daughter he some years afterwards married.
The connection was renewed in the next genera-
tion, when Dr. James Wood married his cousin,
Mary Wood, only daughter of A. Wood, Esq. of
Grangehill, and Dr. Alexander Wood was their
second son.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

3

He was born at Cupar, Fife, December 10th,
1817, not long after which date his father re-
moved to 19 Royal Circus, Edinburgh, where he
was long known as an eminent physician. ‘ I
remember,’ A. Wood says, ‘ coming to Edinburgh
as a very small child. My father had purchased
a house in the upper or south side of the Royal
Circus, and thither his family were removed
from the country in 1821. Among my very
earliest recollections was standing on a platform
at Picardy Place, and seeing George IV. make his
entry into Edinburgh in 1822. Across Leith
Walk a wooden barrier was erected, at the end
of Picardy Place, to represent the city gates,
the keys of which were presented to the king,
whose appearance, as he stood up in the open
carriage to receive them, I shall never forget,
looking, as he did, every inch a king.’

At an early age A. Wood was sent to school,
and, referring to those days, he gives from memory
some interesting notices1 of the state of educa-
tion as it then existed in Edinburgh.

XMS. written in 1883, often quoted in the following pages.
It was in the form of an address to some young friends, who
specially requested that he should make it amusing. This will
account for the tone of some of the extracts.

4

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘The only public school in 1823 was the High
or Burgh School, then taught in a building at
the foot of Infirmary Street, which, until very
lately, was, after many alterations, the surgical
hospital attached to the Royal Infirmary.

‘ As the situation of the High School rendered
it practically inaccessible to children residing in
the northern parts of the New Town, their educa-
tion was entrusted to adventure schools, often
admirably taught, but generally in very unsuitable
premises. To one of these, taught by a Mr. Brown,
in Thistle Street, my brother, who was some
years my senior, was sent for classical education.1
A great companion of his there was the venerable
Dr. Somerville, of the Free Church, Glasgow, and
many a story could be told of the youthful
amusements of the two. I received the first
rudiments of English by attending for a year
or two — very generally only when it pleased
myself — a school kept by a Mr. Hindmarsh, in a
stair in Howe Street ; while writing and arith-

1 The Rev. Walter Wood, M.A., Elie, who died in 1882, after
a ministry of forty-four years. He was one of the ablest and
most devoted ministers of the Free Chnrch.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

5

metic were taught me by Mr. Gowanlock, also in
a common stair entering from the Meuse Lane
off West Northumberland Street.

‘Mr. Hindmarsh’s “System of Elocution” is still
occasionally to be met with on the bookstalls.
When I could read I read it with avidity,
but the fact of its being composed of extracts
was a great trial. I marvelled what went before
and what came after, and often was driven to in-
vent beginnings and endings for myself. The
summary execution of the spy in “ Rob Roy ”
was one that peculiarly arrested my attention ;
and I remember well my delight, many years
after, when I came to it in its proper place in the
story of which it forms so memorable a part.

‘ Of Mr. Hindmarsli’s school I remember little,
except two extraordinary methods of punishment
he resorted to, not very judicious, and which cer-
tainly would not square with modern notions.

‘ In the school were six black boards, about a
foot long by half a foot broad. On these “ booby
medal ” was conspicuously painted ; and to stand
on a form with one of these suspended round the
neck by a loop of black tape, was the fate of chil-
dren who came to school with lessons unprepared.

6

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ Still more singular was the idea of enclosing
delinquents for other offences in potato sacks,
gathered and tied round their necks. I have
still a distinct recollection of seeing six girls —
who appeared to my boyish vision grown women
— ranged on a form in this quaint guise : rather
indignant was I at the sight, because some of
those girls were much given to petting me as
the youngest scholar in the school.

‘ Mr. Gowanlock was deformed. His legs and
feet had been arrested in their development, and,
resembling those of a new-born child, were prac-
tically useless, and lay folded up in front of him
as he moved about on crutches. These feet and
legs, which were never soiled by contact with the
ground, were always neatly clad in black silk
stockings and patent leather pumps. I regarded
them with the admiration with which we look at
a reduced size model of some large machine, and
often longed to exchange what appeared my
clumsy locomotive apparatus for the tiny limbs
of my teacher. Lesson — Many wishes of children
are better left ungratified.’

About that time, or soon afterwards, a remark-
able incident took place. * While still a boy, and

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

7

playing in the gardens in front of the Royal
Circus, an event occurred worth recording.
These gardens contained two plots of grass
divided by a winding gravel walk. An un-
written law assigned one of these to boys, and
the other to girls. While playing there one
summer evening a girl came from their side
and asked one of us to run to the nearest
druggist, and get some sticking plaster, as one
of their companions had fallen, and, striking
her temple on the corner of the garden seat,
had cut it badly. I happened to have some
court plaster about me, and proceeded to apply
it to the young lady’s temple. She afterwards
honoured me with a nod when we met, and I
understood she was an American in Edinburgh
for her education.

* Years passed, and I was a lecturer on medicine
in the School of the College of Surgeons. A very
old gentleman attended my lecture one day. He'
came afterwards into the retiring room and said,
“I mind you a boy playing in the Circus Gardens,
and I wanted to hear you lecture. They tell me
you have got a large practice, but you will maybe
not know who your first patient was ? ” “ Oh

8

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

yes,” I said, “ I do.” “No, no,” lie replied ; “do
you remember dressing a young girl’s head when
she cut it ?” “ Oh yes,” I said. “ Well,” replied

he, “ but you will not know who she is ?” “ No,”

I said. “ She is that woman who, under the
name of ‘ Lola Montes,’ has convulsed all Europe,1
and driven the King of Bavaria from his throne.
She was boarded with me in Circus Place in
those days. I little thought what she would
come to.” ’

In 1826 Alexander Wood became a pupil of
the Edinburgh Academy, which had been opened
in 1824. ‘Though not technically so, it was to
all intents and purposes a public school. The
capital was raised by shares of £50 each ; and
although the shareholders never, I believe, got
any dividend, some would reap more than
pecuniary value in the education of their de-
scendants, and others in having assisted to found
a school which has been a great public benefit to

1 [“ May be said by her conduct at Munich to have set fire to the
magazine of revolution which was ready to burst forth all over
Europe, and which made the year 1848 memorable. Her real
name was Mrs. James ; she was Irish by extraction, and had
married an officer in India.” — Memorials of Lord Malmesbury ,
vol. i. p. 208.]

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

9

Edinburgh. The opening ceremony was pre-
sided over by Sir Walter Scott. Around him
were Francis Jeffrey, Henry Cockburn, James
Moncreiff, Leonard Horner, Dundas of Arniston,
and others.

‘Mr. Brown, my brother’s excellent teacher,
with singular disinterestedness, urged my father to
transfer him to it, and a few years after I entered
the junior class. School exploits of the ordinary
kind have all been rendered tame by the publi-
cation of Tom jBvoivn’s Schooldays and other
books of a similar kind, and it is not personal
adventures, but matters relating to Edinburgh,
that I wish to tell. Of fierce fights with the
inhabitants of Canonmills and Stockbridge I
make no record ; of encampments on the “ Sand
Hills,” as the unoccupied ground to the east was
then called, I say nothing. The peculiarities of
my masters — the venerable Archdeacon Williams,
the imitation of whose patois, like the freemason’s
grip, enabled Academy pupils to recognise each
other in the most distant quarters of the globe ;
the eccentric Gloag ; Mitchell, the intimate of
Thomas Carlyle, with a temper closely resembling
that of his friend; Fambleton, the writing-master,

10

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

driven by the waggery of his pupils to change
his original singular name to Hamilton ; Braid,
French officer under Napoleon, the refined, gentle-
manly, shrinking man, quite unable to cope with
rough schoolboys ; and Dyer, prince of English
scholars, who inspired all the better boys with the
love of draughts from the pure wells of “ English
undefiled,” who, scrupulously attentive to his
dress, and with a pardonable weakness for horse-
flesh, found himself transferred one mornino- in
1832 from the English masters desk at the
Academy to a white-washed cell on the debtor
side of Edinburgh jail. Poor Dyer ! how we all
lamented his fate, and sought to alleviate it by
frequent visits and gifts of cigars, and such like
creature comforts.

‘ Among those who attended the Academy
before I left, although in advance of me, was
Frederick Robertson, the gifted preacher of
Brighton. He and George Kobertson Moncreiff,
the youngest brother of Lord Moncreiff, now a
school inspector in England, strove together in
honourable rivalry. Robertson had spent some
time in France, and had there studied the
language ; and yet, to the surprise of all and

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

11

the discontent of some, Moncreiff carried off the
prize for French Composition. To Robertson,
whose pronunciation of French was the most
correct, was assigned the task of reading his
rival’s composition on the Public Exhibition Day.
He did his best, and his companions bestowed
on him hearty applause. The Academical Club
offered, in 1832, a prize for the best English
poem on the subject, Memor actce non alio rege
jpueritice, — “ mindful of boyhood spent under the
same master.” The prize was awarded to Elias,
a son of Bishop Terrot, but two were considered
equal seconds, of whom Frederick Robertson was
one. It is interesting now to note the first
efforts in verse of one who afterwards proved
himself so able a master of poetical prose. I do
not think, as far as I remember, this poem is
printed in his life.

‘ “Ye scenes of boyhood’s happiest days,

Alas, too quickly fled !

When fickle Hope’s delusive rays
A rapturous joy o’erspread ;

When warm imagination’s charms,

Free from suspicion’s dark alarms,

And from the crowd’s ignoble strife
In glowing colours oft portrayed,

And in a garb of light arrayed
The destinies of life,” etc. etc.

12

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ Of the pupils in those early days there were
others who afterwards rose to distinction, from
the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards. Ah,
how as I think ! those benches become peopled
with merry occupants, most of whom have
passed away. A few, as the Earl of AVemyss,
Sir John Don AVauchope, and Major Tulloch,
still survive. The two latter were duces.’

And there were others besides pupils of whom
he speaks as his friends. The first was ‘ John
Howell, janitor at the Academy, when I entered
it — an ingenious man. AAdiile serving in that
capacity he constructed a trireme galley on the
Roman model, and Caesar’s Bridge over the Rhine,
from the description given of it in his Com-
mentaries. He quarrelled with the directors,
and resigned ; and on leaving the Academy
opened a shop in Thistle Street, which bore the
superscription over the door, “ John Howell,
Poly artist. ” A strange medley that old
curiosity shop was. Having been originally a
bookbinder, he invented a machine for paring
the edges of books, with which he removed
the points of three of his son’s fingers. Next
he contrived a diving-bell, in which the unhappy

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

13

youth was compelled to risk himself, and was
only saved from drowning when all the rules of
the Humane Society for such exigencies had
been well-nigh exhausted. His next experiment
he tried on himself. Fitting a pair of wings to
his shoulders, he took flight from an eminence,
but descended speedily to the ground. He was
the author of a Life of Alexander Selkirk , on
whose adventures Defoe based the tale of Robin-
son Crusoe .’

4 In my schooldays also, I was very intimate
with two sons of the late Dr. William Muir, of
St. Stephen’s, and along with them I was a
constant visitor at the studio of Sir John, then
Mr. Steel, at that time a shed in a park now’
occupied by the Gymnasium (Fettes Row). We
used to go after school hours, and watch him
modelling his famous group of 44 Alexander and
Bucephalus,” which I rejoice to think more than
half a century after its creation is soon to adorn
Edinburgh.’

Among his schoolboy reminiscences there is
one which he was induced to put on record for
the amusement of his young friends. 4 After
the Academy had been built some years, it was

14

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

found necessary to increase the accommodation,
and an additional building was erected for the
writing and arithmetic classes and a gymnasium.
During the erection of it, an amusing incident
occurred, of which I doubt not memories still
linger. I must premise that the outer gates
were locked at 9 a.m., and not opened again
until the school was dismissed at 3 p.m., no
boy being allowed to pass them without written
permission from the Master. At that time
Henderson Row was not built, and a park
stretched away to the east, with a steep declivity
on the north, sloping down to the road between
Canonmills and Saint Bernard’s Row. In this
field masons’ and carpenters’ sheds were esta-
blished to prepare the material for the new
building, and an opening slapped in the wall
allowed it, and also the more daring spirits
among the boys, fair egress and ingress. The
sloping bank had been let out to pig- owners, and
was a village of pigs. Each class had a quarter
of an hour for play, twice between nine and
three o’clock.

‘At these intervals it became a favourite
amusement to enjoy what was called a “ boar

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

15

hunt.” Armed with their fencing-foils or basket-
sticks, a party would sally through the slap in
the wall, and letting a pig out of its sty, would
pursue it as it careered madly over the field.
On one occasion a very large sow had been
dislodged, and with that perversity which pigs
will display, instead of affording sport for its
pursuers by running over the field, had made
for the slap in the wall, and when the bell rang
to reassemble the class, was actually careering in
the playground. The bell was ringing — the pig
would not be persuaded to retrace its footsteps —
the Rector, the venerable Archdeacon, would soon
be coming up from the Master’s lodge. There
was no time for further action, the class-room
door stood temptingly open, and there the pig
betook itself for shelter. What was to be done ?
There was a large closet in the room, and there
was barely time to ensconce the pig in the closet,
when the Rector took his place, and lessons
began.

‘ Genially was he discoursing to the class on
the cligamma, or the one Troas, or any other of
the numerous fads with which his pupils were
indoctrinated, when a deep grunt from a corner

16 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

4

— a good imitation of a pig, as lie thought — cut
short his teaching. In a wrath which, to do him
justice, he seldom exhibited, he rose from his
seat, and demanded who was the culprit. No
reply being given, after a homily on honour
and the disgrace of falsehood, each boy beginning
with the dux was ordered to rise in turn and
repeat the formula, “ On my honour, I didn’t
do it.” Every boy did so. Now pale with
anger, arguing from the postulate that some boy
must have done it, he proceeded, in no measured
terms, to denounce the mean, sneaking, cowardly
wretch, who would soil his honour, and — but
before the climax was reached — another fearful
grunt broke it off. This time the sound evidently
proceeded from the door of the closet, and our
short, stout Rector strides towards it. Scarcely
had he thrown the door wide open to prevent all
concealment, when the sow rushed out, and
getting between his legs, threw him over on his
back. At that inauspicious moment the owner
of the pig, in vain endeavours to reclaim his
missing property, had traced it to the class-room,
and, armed with an oaken cudgel, he opened the
door in time to see our master on his back on

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL LIFE.

17

the floor. For a moment it seemed as if the
beloved teacher would have to submit to the
further indignity of an assault, but that was
averted. The man and his pig were got rid of,
and with admirable tact and well-assumed sang
froid , the teacher rose. “ Yes, yes! Well, well!
You know, you know ! ” were favourite expres-
sions in daily use. These he uttered pulling him-
self together. He re-opened his book with “Boys,
our lesson has been too long interrupted; go on.” ’
Another incident wears a different aspect.
e One day coming home on a winter evening
from the Academy with some other boys, a tall,
gaunt man was seen approaching. My com-
panions, who seemed to have known him, all fled.
He was a stranger to me, and I walked on. The
sun was then setting. He called on me to join
in worshipping it. He kneeled down on the
pavement, reverently uncovering his head, and
baring his wrist, pricked it in many places with
a needle which he drew from the lapel of his
coat. Taking a paper of salt from his pocket, he
rubbed some of it among the blood, and offered
it as a votive offering to. the sun. 1 made off as
fast as possible.

18

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ At that time the Academy holidays were often
on a Monday, and as the Justiciary Court sat on
Mondays, I often went there ; the doorkeeper,
having been butler to a relative, always let me
in. It was then held in a close, dingy room,
entering from the Parliament House, near the
present door, leading to the Advocates’ Library.
Going there some time after the occurrence I
have described, to hear the trial of a man who
had split the skull of an old woman at Cramond
— widow Geddes — without any ostensible cause,
I was astonished to recognise in the panel at the
bar, my friend, the sun-worshipper. A plea of
insanity was set up in vain. He was executed at
Edinburgh, on 21st January 1832, and his body
was the last sentenced to be handed over for
dissection.

II.

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

The years of school attendance at the Academy
passed away, ending in July 1832, and college
life at the Edinburgh University was about to
begin, but before we follow him into that wider
held, some notes must be given on the outward
aspect of the city of Edinburgh in his boyhood.
There is no part of these early recollections on
which he seems to dwell with greater pleasure,
and they are given at some length as affording
interesting glimpses into his own mind and
character.

‘ When the family came to reside in the south
side of the Royal Circus (1821), the opposite or
north side was not yet built, nor St. Stephen’s
Church, nor Cumberland Street, nor any of the
streets to the north, and from the windows of
our house there was a clear view of the Firth
of Forth, with a man-of-war, called the " Guard-
ship,” in the offing. Towards Stockbridge again,

20

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

you first came to the little village of Spring
Gardens, conspicuous in which was the curious
house where David Roberts, the artist, first saw
the light in 1796. The lands of St. Bernard’s,
where the crescent of that name and adjacent
streets now stand, were the policies of Dean-
haugh, the seat of Sir Henry Raeburn. They
were approached by a wide wooden bridge,
stretching over the Water of Leith, between
what is now Saunders Street and Dean Terrace.
On crossing this bridge you entered the grounds
under an arch formed of a whale’s jaw, and there,
beneath the trees that seemed to my childish
eyes to be large as “those of the forest primeval,”
and on the grassy parks that seemed boundless
in extent, we would disport ourselves in the
country, refreshed with curds and cream from
a neighbouring dairy. At the western end
stood a tower, built about the end of last
century by a Walter Ross, and yclept “Ross’s
Folly.” It was composed of stones of remark-
able edifices that had been pulled down, and in
those days of neglect, antiquities were little
cared for. There were there, I believe, stones
from the old Heart of Midlothian, and even

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

21

portions of the Cross (?) of Edinburgh. This
tower I do not recollect. One particular stone
belonging to Mr. Ross, and its fate, I do how-
ever remember. It was a huge boulder-looking
stone, about 10 feet high, roughly hewn into
some semblance of the human form, and it lay
at the end of Ann Street, looking grimly down
at the Water of Leith below. Its gigantic size
and hideous appearance had probably saved it
from the hand of the spoiler, when Ross’s Folly
disappeared. And yet this stone had a history
as remarkable as any of which that grotesque
structure was composed.

4 About a.d. 1650, after his victory at Dunbar,
Cromwell was quartered at Moray House, in the
Canongate, now the Free Church Normal School,
and exercised his gifts of preaching to such effect
in St. Giles’ Churchyard,1 as to ingratiate himself
with the civic dignitaries, who resolved to erect
a statue to his honour, near the spot where he
had exercised these functions. A block of stone,
rough hewn in the quarry to save the sculptor
labour, was acquired, and duly landed on Leith

1 [Pinkerton’s Scottish Gallery. — Lord Cardross .]

22

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Sands ; but, alas for the changes of this changeful
world ! before the stone came into the sculptors
hands Cromwell was dead, and the Stuart dynasty
restored. The Magistrates of Edinburgh, neglect-
ing the stone still on Leith Sands, despatched the
town-clerk to convey to Charles II. assurances of
their never-failing loyalty, with what was more
tangible and real, although in his hands quite as
evanescent, the sum of £1000. Further, it was
resolved that his statue, cast in lead, should be
put where it still stands, on the spot intended to
have been sacred to the pulpit gifts of Oliver
Cromwell.

‘In 1788, Walter Ross acquired the stone still
lying on Leith Sands, and brought it to Edin-
burgh. When the “Folly” was pulled down
it lay, as I have said, overhanging the river,
until 182'6, when three pupils of the Edinburgh
Academy, greatly my seniors, tilted it over- into
the Water of Leith, where in his fall poor Oliver
was broken into a thousand fragments.

‘ The mention of Oliver Cromwell, and the
almost deserted or destroyed village of Spring
Gardens, leads me to speak of another village
which has now disappeared, where he seems to

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

23

liave had his head- quarters before the battle of
Dunbar — I mean Old Broughton. As I remem-
ber it, it stood in the centre of a square, bounded
on the north by London Street, east by Brough-
ton Street, south by Albany Street, and west by
Dublin Street, — a space now occupied by the
Broughton Market, Barony Street, and other
buildings.

‘ As children, we were frequent visitors there,
and knew it well, being often taken surreptitiously
by a nurserymaid who had relatives living in it.
I well remember my childish admiration for some
houses approached by outside stairs, with bright
green doors and polished brass knockers, equalled
by the terror of the grim old jail of the Barony,
with the stocks still standing in front of it, and
a yet more mysterious dread of a dilapidated
building, called “The Witches’ Howf,” whence our
veracious nurse assured us would issue old women
riding on broomsticks, who would run away with
us if we ever revealed to our parents that we often
spent the hours in a close room at Old Brough-
ton, during which they thought we were inhaling
the sunny air of Comely Bank, or imbibing the
sea-breezes on the grassy shores of Trinity.

24

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ But let us return to Stockbridge. From the
village of Spring Gardens, with which Stock-
bridge may be said to commence, ran a steep
narrow lane — a kirk and market road to the
West Church, the parish church of Stockbridge.
It still survives as Church Lane. Wemyss Place
and all the streets to the west of it were then
unbuilt. Lord Moray’s policies, surrounded with
trees, were then unbroken, although building
there must have been commenced about this
time, for I remember playing in the saw-pits,
where the wood for the houses was being pre-
pared. What is now the West Heriot Row
Garden was then a private garden of the Earl of
Wemyss, surrounded by a hideous brick wall.
Lord Wemyss’ house was, and still is, in Queen
Street, opposite. What are now the other
gardens, between Heriot Row and Queen Street,
were then open fields, not over green, and much
intersected, as the Meadows are too much now,
by diagonal footpaths, made by pedestrians
taking short cuts in various directions.

‘ I have said that Moray Place and the sump-
tuous squares to the west of it were then unbuilt.
The Dean Bridge was not dreamt of, and I well

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

25

remember that the village of Water of Leith, now
so conspicuous from that bridge, was then un-
known to many of the inhabitants of Edinburgh ;
indeed, so late as 1832, when cholera first visited
us, and early cases were reported from that
village, Edinburgh was full of enquiries as to
where it was, many sites being assigned to it be-
tween the Pentland Hills and Leith Harbour.

‘ Long after the time I speak of, when the St.
Bernard’s grounds were well built over, I was
walking with my father across the then new
bridge, which is carried over the Water of Leith,
at the west end of India Place, when we met
Mr. Raeburn, the proprietor. My father compli-
mented him on the new bridge, and the con-
venience it was to the inhabitants. “You will
soon see another,” said Mr. Raeburn, “ between
Doune Terrace and Ann Street. Mr. Learmonth
has acquired the Dean property for feuing pur-
poses. He must have better access to it, and I
only can give it him through Ann Street. He
thinks my terms high, but he must come in to
them.” “Take care,” said my father, pointing
with his cane to the high ground at Randolph
Cliff ; “he will throw a chain suspension bridge

2G

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

across there.” “ That is impossible,” said Mr.
Raeburn, emphatically. A few years more, and,
as often happens, the impossible was the thing
that took place, and the deep chasm was spanned
— not by a suspension bridge for foot-passengers,
but by the solid and beautiful structure over
which the great north road is carried. Before
that, the road descended the hill by Lynedoch
Place to Bell’s Mills, and reascended between the
Orphan Hospital and John Watson’s Institution.
At an earlier period it descended the still steeper
road to the village of Water of Leith, reascend-
ing again in front of where the entrance to
Dean Cemetery now is, and then descending to
the road between Comely Bank and Craigleith
Quarry.

‘ Craigleith Quarry ! What a busy scene it
was in those days, for in its rocky bosom lay
buried the future extensions of Edinburgh, which
were being made as rapidly available as possible.
It then looked like a gigantic bee-hive, full of
busy workers.

‘ Between Heriot Row on the north, and the
line of Princes Street on the south, few changes
have taken place, except that the dreary monotony

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

27

of George Street and the shabby gentility of
Princes Street, then wholly occnpied by private
residences, have been effectually removed by the
transformation of the older buildings into hand-
some shops and other erections, by which these
streets are now adorned. The greatest change
here is on the Earthen Mound — that hideous mole
which, as I have described Craigleith Quarry as
yielding its contents for the erection of new
houses, so I must describe the Mound as receiv-
ing; the earth dug; out of their foundations. At
first it was merely intended to lay down a suffi-
cient quantity of earth to give a dry footing to
those who wished to cross the swamp of the Nor’
Loch at this place, but it was found a convenient
free toom, and ere long acquired its present pro-
portions. Neither the Eoyal Institution nor the
Royal Academy then beautified its surface.

‘ A circular wooden building, in which there
were permanent displays of panoramas, stood,
until lately, near its top, surrounded by wooden
sheds for various purposes. It was much beloved
by the children of Edinburgh, for there congre-
gated caravans of wild beasts, shows with giants
and dwarfs, and all those wonders which never

28

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

appear in Edinburgh now, but are relegated to
country fairs. There I remember seeing the
lions, “Nero” and “Wallace,” after they had
come through the disgraceful exhibition at
Warwick. A few of the dogs who had survived
the calamity were exhibited along with them;
and “Nero” was so quiet that visitors entered
his cage, and handled him freely. That sight,
however, I had nearly lost in an amusing way.
We were sent, all small children, with our
governess, to whom strict injunctions would
be given to take care we were exposed to no
danger. We had ascended the wooden stairs,
the preliminaries of payment had been settled,
and we were about to enter the interior, when
the timid lady enquired, “ They are all in cages,
I hope ? ” “ Cages ! No, ma’am, what would

them do in cages ? Them walks about.” “ They
will be then chained,” suggested our friend.
“ Chained, ma’am,” replied the keeper, “ what
for would you chain them. Them be as quiet
as you, I reckon.” It turned out we had gone
to the wrong caravan. The one to which our
money had been paid exhibited a giant, a
dwarf, a fat boy, and a living skeleton, none

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

29

of whom certainly needed restraint. It ended,
however, in our seeing both caravan loads.

£ The open ground to the east of the Mound,
now so beautiful, was then — except at the ex-
treme east end which was occupied by the
vegetable and fish market, a large square sur-
rounded by booths — a rugged haugh with un-
trimmed grass sorely trampled down, a place
into which the wind blew the lighter refuse of
the streets, and into which no one seemed to
object to what was heavier being thrown. The
Mound itself was divided longitudinally by a
wall pierced with manholes, which enabled pas-
sengers to obtain shelter by taking the lee-side,
in whatever direction the wind blew. It wa,s a
great place for beggars exhibiting their mutila-
tions and sores, while the walls were freely used
for the exhibition of birds in their cages, chap-
books, boot-laces, and other small wares.

* To reach George Square you had then to
descend a steep close from the High Street, and
ascend another, for George IV. Bridge was not
built. Argyle and Brown Squares, with Society
and George Square, were all of an earlier date
than any part of the New Town. Dr. Chalmers’

30

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

first house in Edinburgh was in Argyle Square,
now wholly removed to make room for the
Industrial Museum. His second, still standing,
was the corner house of Society, overhanging
what is now Chambers Street.

Lord Glenlee, whose house was the one which
occupied the centre of Brown Square, now 31
Chambers Street, used, fully robed and wigged,
to find his way to the seat on the bench by
the closes I have described.

‘ Lauriston then contained many old-fashioned,
commodious mansions, with capacious outhouses
and parks stretching down to the Meadows.
On the south side of the Meadows, again,
were similar houses, each, however, having
its garden, between which and the South
Meadow Walk ran a ditch covered with green
slime, over which each house had its plank or
ornamental bridge.

‘ South of that, where the streets of Grange
now stand, were the parks attached to the
Grange House, the seat of Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder, a noted political character and interest-
ing author, who lived to record the first visit of
our beloved Queen to Scotland. Access could

EDINBURGH SIXTY YEARS AGO.

31

be obtained to it by the Lovers’ Lane, which
still exists, although sadly changed from what
1 remember it, when, flanked by pretty green
fields, we went there to gather the first haw-
thorn, and inhale the scent of its fragrant blos-
soms.

c By this lane, too, we could obtain access to
Blackford Hill, and enjoy the view from its
summit, so beautifully described by Sir Walter
Scott —

‘ “ Still on the spot Lord Marmion stayed,

For fairer scene he ne’er surveyed,

When sated with the martial show
That peopled all the plain below,

The wandering eye could o’er it go
And mark the distant city glow

With gloomy splendour red,” &c. &c.

‘ While to one who stands on Blackford Hill
the more distant prospect remains unchanged,
how different now the scene at its foot. The
Boroughmuir, then large enough for the evo-
lutions of the army with which the King
marched to defeat and ruin at Flodden, now
occupied with houses, the very Borestone on
which the staff of his standard was placed, built
into a garden wall, and Bruntsfield Links, though
sorely encroached on, all that is left of that wide

32

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

expanse. And nearer the hill still, line upon
line of streets now cover the green pasture lands
of the Grange. The old Chapel of Saint Roque
has disappeared, and little remains of the
Nunnery of Saint Catherine of Scienna, the
last religious house founded by bull of the Pope
in Scotland before the Reformation.’

Such was the Edinburgh of Alexander Wood’s
boyish days, on the reminiscences of which, to
the last, he loved to dwell.

III.

0

STUDENT LIFE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

In 1832 he entered the University, and took
the usual course in the Faculty of Arts, with the
single exception of the Class of Rhetoric, which
happened to be vacant — a circumstance which
prevented his applying for the degree of M.A.
As these Arts classes were attended partly during
his medical course, he could not stand so high as
he would otherwise have done among students
who were giving all their time to literary or
philosophical work. But that he held a good
place is shown by his certificates, One professor,
who was usually by no means lavish of praise,
speaks of his abilities and proficiency; and another,
of the credit with which he acquitted himself in
the public examinations. While attending Pro-
fessor Dunbars advanced class, he carried the
first prize for an essay on a “ Comparison between
the Greeks and Romans in their Literary and

Philosophical character.”

c

34

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

It was to the study of medicine, however, that
his strength was given. Among the professors
who then adorned the medical chairs in the Uni-
versity, there were men of whom he was accus-
tomed to speak in terms of the highest respect
and admiration — of Dr. Alison, for example, who
held the chair of Theory of Physic ; of Professor
Syme, who held that of Clinical Surgery; and of
Dr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Christison, who held
the chair of Materia Medica. With the last of
these he frequently came into conflict in after
years, but he was ever ready, in the most generous
spirit, to do justice to the high qualifications of
his former teacher.

Of the extra-academical lecturers there are
two to whose teaching he was specially indebted.
The first was John Scott Russell, the eminent

engineer, ‘ whose kindly notice of me,’ he says,

« \ *

‘ in boyhood, ripened into a friendship which was
only terminated by his death. He lectured in
what is now a New Jerusalem Church, opposite
the gate of the Old Infirmary, and it was the
delight of my friends, the Messrs. Muir, and my-
self, when students at College, to assist in prepar-
ing the apparatus for his lectures. At that time

STUDENT LIFE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 35

also, lie was constructing his carriages to run by
steam on common roads, in the garden of an old-
fashioned house, now built over at the corner of
Fountainbridge and Grove Street. I had the
honour of being on the box-seat of the first of
these carriages that sallied forth from that yard,
.and ran along Princes Street. They afterwards
performed a regular service between Glasgow and
Paisley. Mr. Russell, however^ got into logger-
heads with the Road Trustees, who laid the road
with coarse metal. The wheels of one of his
carriages gave way, and the body falling on the
boiler crushed it. Several of the passengers were
injured, and the scheme abandoned.

‘ He was the discoverer of the wave theory, on
which all the fast American clippers were built,
and also the builder of the Great Eastern Steam-
ship. He had a great deal to do with many of
the most admired arrangements of the Exhibition
of 1851, and almost his last work was the dome
of the exhibition building at Vienna — a triumph
of architectural skill. One of the arrangements
suggested by him he was very proud of. It was
well known that on the opening day pickpockets
from all cpiarters of the world would be present.

36

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

How could they be prevented from exercising
their vocation ? Mr. Russell suggested a plan
which was adopted. A large square apartment,
fenced in like an old-fashioned church pew, was
provided. Detectives from all places being pre-
sent, indicated to the officials suspected characters,
who were politely shown into this case, and left
to exercise their ingenuity upon one another.’

Another of these outside lecturers was the
celebrated anatomist, Dr. Knox, ‘ who was,’ he
says, ‘ the ugliest man and the best lecturer I
ever heard. Dr. Knox, Sir Charles Bell, the
Duke of Argyll, and Mr. John Scott Russell, I
would mention as the men who have or had the
greatest power of explaining abstruse subjects to
popular audiences ; while I would refer to a
budget speech of Gladstone’s, of which I have
heard several, as unequalled in the facility with
which difficult financial questions were made clear,
and a human interest thrown over columns of
figures, usually a dreary enough subject.

‘ Knox, I have said, was an ugly man, his face
deeply pitted with small -pox, and blind of an eye.
He was not only a good lecturer, but was most
thoroughly aware of it, and has been heard to

STUDENT LIFE — UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 37

say in his class-room, “ Gentlemen, there are only
two men who know how to lecture — myself and
Sir Charles Bell.” He was a perfect master of
sarcasm, and too powerful a man to he liked by
opponents. To the University Professors he
was especially obnoxious, as he drew away large
numbers of students to his lecture-rooms, while he
was ostracised for his connection with the Burke
atrocities ; of which, however, 1 believe he was
quite innocent. I remember on one memorable
occasion seeing the whole of the leaders of the
Royal Society attempt to put him down at a
meeting of that body. One after another rose in
turn to flout at him. With imperturbable temper,
and a contemptuous smile, which I shall never
forget, he received each attack, and, replying in
one short, sharp, stinging sentence, sent each
assailant limping away thoroughly discomfited.
His introductory lecture each session was always
crowded, for in it he usually exercised his full
powders of sarcasm on the unlucky objects who
fell under his ban.

‘ On one occasion, a Dr. Shirreff had advertised
his intention of commencing to teach anatomy by
means of plaster casts, which, as he informed his

38

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

students in bills, would save them the trouble and
disagreeable duty of dissection. The occasion was
too tempting for Knox, and every available part of
his large class-room was crowded before the hour,
to hear his “introductory.” ’After long and im-
patient waiting, two stout porters entered, carry-
ing what appeared a large, almost shapeless,
mass of plaster of Paris. They were followed
by Knox, carrying gingerly, between his finger
and thumb, a small glass tube containing an
anatomical preparation. Holding this up, and
pointing to it with a well-acted look of admira-
tion, he commenced his lecture with, “ The human
ear, gentlemen ! the human ear as made by God
Almighty!” — then, changing his expression to one
of ineffable disgust, he pointed to the plaster cast
with the words, “ The human ear as made by
Dr. Shirreff ! Dr. Shirreff ! ” and then followed a
brilliant lecture, sparkling with sarcasm. He
always met his class dressed as for a ball, his-
index finger, with which he had to point out
various facts, sparkling with diamonds. Years-
afterwards, when we were colleague lecturers in
the Medical School, a new teacher gave his first
lecture, and we were both present to hear him..

STUDENT LIFE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 39

As we came out, Knox asked what I thought of
the performance. I rather indicated a favourable
opinion. “ Won’t do,” said Knox, “ no sense —
lectures in tartan breeches.”

4 It was commonly reported that he never
entered a church. I can testify that he was once
at least under the roof of one ; for on the memor-
able 18th of May 1843, I had followed the heroes
of the Disruption to Tanfield, and seen the Free
Assembly constituted. A friend proposed that
we should return to St. Andrew’s Church, and
see how those left behind were getting on. On
ascending the stair to the gallery, whom should
we meet, like a bird of ill omen fluttering
down, but Knox. Jerking his thumb over his
shoulder toward the sadly thin benches, he said,
“Won’t do, won’t do; caput mortuum ! soul
fled !” I never saw him but once again. He
left Edinburgh, and sank lower and lower in
the social scale, — a sad example of how little
mere talent without moral principle can do for
a man.’

Some of these notices serve to show the keen
zest with which Alexander Wood entered into the
incidents of University life, 4 Much might be

40

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

recorded of the professors in the “30’s,” and of the
students, many of whom have since been more
distinguished than their teachers, but I forbear.
Nor shall I be tempted to enter into the details,
of which few are conversant, of that memorable
day, in 1838, when the Lord Provost lost his head,
and called in the military to aid the civic force,
and the sacred quadrangle of the College beheld
itself, for the first time, desecrated by a “thin red
line” of British soldiers, while its walls re-echoed
to the command, “ Make ready, present,” though
“fire” was reserved. Neither need I recite any
of the thousand and one pasquinades which the
event called forth; nor of the trial, when a batch
of students were brought to the bar for mobbing,
rioting, etc., and defended by two of the fore-
most counsel then in the Parliament House —
Patrick Robertson, afterwards “ Lord Robert-
son,” and Robert Whigham — and acquitted.’

The benefits of a University training, it is well
known, depend largely on those college debating
societies, in which the talents of the students are
first brought fully into play. All who knew Dr.
Wood in after life will readily believe that, in
these discussions, it was no secondary place

STUDENT LIFE — UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 41

wliicli he held. At first he joined the Classical,
* one of the most select debating societies then
existing, and which was regarded as a stepping-
stone to the Speculative. Among the elder
members, who still occasionally attended, were
Lord Moncreiff and Samuel Warren, the author
of the Diary of a Late Physician , Ten Thou-
sand a Year, etc.

‘ I did not join the Speculative Society ; but,
having decided to make medicine my profession,
became a member of the Royal Medical Society,
then on the eve of celebrating the hundredth
anniversary, under the presidentship of Dr.
Carpenter, the physiologist, at that time a stu-
dent in Edinburgh, who still survives’ [1883].

In this Society the ablest medical students came
together to train themselves for their future
career. The speaking was of a high order, as the
present writer can testify, having on one occasion
been present as a listener, and the office of
senior president was, and still is, the highest
honour which a medical student can receive at
the hands of his fellow-students. It shows the
distinguished position which Alexander Wood
was already beginning to take, that twice he was

42

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

raised to tlie presidentship by the votes of the
members.

At last, after a five years’ course of medical
study, he took his degree on the 1st of August
1839, and was :c honourably distinguished in the
list of graduates.”

Among the reminiscences of those days there
are some which show the interest he was already
beginning to take in ecclesiastical and political
movements.

* In 1826 we had the first of the memorable
controversies which have raged in Edinburgh
during the last sixty years — that on the propriety
of the Bible Society circulating the Apocrypha
with the canonical Scriptures. The Rev. Dr.
Henry Grey, a man of most refined and gentle
manners, and a sweet persuasive, preacher, posed
as the champion of the English Bible Society, by
whom the Apocrypha had been circulated, while
Dr. Andrew Thomson, the minister of St. George’s,
one of the most effective of public speakers, de-
nounced it. Public meetings were held, and pam-
phlets and caricatures were scattered broadcast.
I remember the crowds round the print-shops,
where the last caricatures issued were exhibited.

STUDENT LIFE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 43

in one of which Dr. Grey was represented by
the steeple of St. Mary’s, Bellevue Crescent, of
which he was minister ; and Dr. Thomson by
that of the dome of St. George’s, Charlotte
Square, each having a face with their likeness
upon it — not inapt representations of the physical
characteristics of the two men.

;In 1829 the question of Catholic Emancipa-
tion came to the front, and I got into a corner of
the Assembly Rooms at the celebrated meeting,
held on 14th March of that year, when the lead-
ing citizens of Edinburgh assembled to petition

4

in favour of the removal of the disabilities under
which the Roman Catholics laboured. Never
probably had a meeting in Edinburgh caused
such excitement. Never certainly was such an
assemblage of men of mark of both political
parties gathered together. One shilling was
charged each person for admission, and over
1500 shillings were paid, although the doors
were carried at a rush by the crowd who had
long besieged them outside, and many got in
without payment. Sir William Arbuthnot was
in the chair ; and among the speakers were the
late Lord Moncreiff, Lords Cockburn, Jeffrey,

44

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

and Murray ; Dr. Chalmers, Sir Alexander Mait-
land Gibson, and Captain Basil Hall ; and
powerful letters in support were read from Dr.
Andrew Thomson, who was prevented being pre-
sent. On 5th March 1829 Sir Kobert Peel, then
Home Secretary, had, in a speech of unusual
length, indicated the change of front which led
the Conservative party to introduce and carry
the Catholic Emancipation Act. In this year
appeared the Life of Isabella Campbell, of Ferni-
cany, Roseneath, followed by the Row contro-
versy. Dr. Chalmers at that time resided with
my father when in Edinburgh. We thus heard
a great deal more than we would otherwise
have done of these matters. On one occasion he
was called away from the dinner table by some
one who urgently wanted to see him. On re-
turning, with a half-puzzled, half-amused expres-
sion, he handed my mother a piece of paper
covered with cabalistic signs, saying, “ Mrs.
Wood, you have heard of the unknown tongues,
this is a specimen of the unknown writing.”
Honest man, he was a good performer in un-
known writing himself. It is reported his father
used to say, “ Here’s a letter from Thomas, we

STUDENT LIFE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 45

maun just keep it till lie comes to us to read

• i 5?

it.

‘ I was present at Campbell’s deposition by the
Assembly, at a meeting held in the Tron Church.
I forget the exact year, I think about 1831.’

‘In 1831 we had the memorable riots — only
quelled by a detachment of cavalry charging the
mob with drawn swords — occasioned by the Town
Council, in whose hands the election of Members
of Parliament then was, choosing Henry Dundas,
afterwards Mr. Christopher, instead of the popular
candidate J effrey. Provost Allan was almost
killed, and had to take refuge in a shop in
Leith Street, and the house of Mr. Dundas of
Arniston, next to what was then the British
Hotel, now one of the Merchant Company’s
Schools, had its windows broken, the special
constables were stoned, and the dragoons unable
to act effectively.’

‘ Then came the Reform Bill, with its illumina-
tions, and rejoicings consequent thereon, and the
smashing of the windows of those who refused to
light up.

‘ Then the return of J effrey and Abercromby,
and their being chaired. Never shall I forget

46

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

the look of abject terror which pervaded the
usually tranquil face of the future Speaker of
the House of Commons, as he was dragged
through the streets on a very shaky erection
covered with buff and blue. Evidently the fact
most borne in on his mind was not the pride of
the hour, but the remembrance that pride may
have a fall. His colleague bore his trying
honours more philosophically.

‘In 1833 the country was agitated on the ques-
tion of Slavery. A hired lecturer, Mr. Thomson,
came down to Edinburgh — a man of eloquence
and power, and many of his addresses against
Slavery I was privileged to hear. At one of
these an amusing scene occurred, of which I was
a witness. A West Indian proprietor, resident
in Edinburgh, and well known there, stung by
some of the charges brought against them by
the lecturer, rose white with rage, and gave him
the lie. Thomson saw at once the opportunity,
and calmly invited him to the platform, and
afterwards requested the unsympathetic audience
to hear him. The poor West Indian was no
match for the cool practised debater, and after
spluttering and stammering for a short time, he

STUDENT LIFE — UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 4 7

beat a retreat, affording Thomson an admirable
theme for his lecture. The slave-owners hired
an orator called Borthwick to oppose Thomson.
He too was a fluent speaker and a good debater,
but he had a bad cause.’

i

IV.

EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

The time liad now come when Alexander
Wood must enter on his life work, and it was
natural that he should ehoose as his field the
city of Edinburgh, to which he had so many ties.
At the outset he became one of the Medical
Officers of Stockbridge Dispensary and Lying-in
Institution, and afterwards of the Royal Public
Dispensary of the New Town. Work soon began
to accumulate on his hands, and the experience
which he had gained by a long course of attend-
ance in the Infirmary was thus greatly increased.
But while he threw himself with characteristic
energy into his work among the poor, it was not
long till his skill as a physician was recognised
by those of a higher social standing, and his
practice among the general public began steadily
to increase.

In 1841 he commenced as Lecturer on the
Practice of Medicine in one of the extra-

EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

49

academical classes. His first lecture was deli-
vered on November 3. The Rev. Dr. Muir, of
St. Stephen’s, writes, the previous evening, to
express his great regret that he cannot be pre-
sent : “I shall follow you with my good wishes.
Your success in this, and in all your professional
labours, I never can doubt.”

It is well known that much of the fame of
Edinburgh as a medical school is due to the
distinguished men who have at various times
taught these classes outside the University.
When Dr. Wood entered on his course, he
soon began to attract general notice. To illus-
trate his lectures he secured the museum of one
of the most eminent of his predecessors, Dr.
Mackintosh — a collection “ well known to be rich
in almost every kind of diseased structure,” and
especially remarkable for the beautiful drawings
which it contained, to which Dr. Wood was
continually adding. His brilliant gifts as a
public speaker were of great service ; but not
relying on these, he devoted his time and talents
unsparingly to the preparation of his lectures,
resolved to the utmost of his ability to do justice
to the students whose course of study he was

50

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

conducting. Six large portfolios of MS., which
now lie before us, are visible proof that lecturing
was to him no routine work. Sometimes rising

o

in the early morning, sometimes sitting far into
the late hours of night, he soon showed that it
was no superficial or commonplace treatment of
the subject that would satisfy him.

But while the substratum of his lectures was
the solid information which they contained, his
mind had far too much original force to allow of
his being a mere dispenser of information at
second-hand. His gifts of graceful elocution
and clear exposition, as well as of incisive
criticism, were continually in exercise. Severe
in his remarks, where severity was required, he
was no less a generous and admiring exponent of
all that was good and true ; and there are not a
few of his former pupils who can testify to the
happy and profitable hours which they spent in
his class-room. What the students felt was the
complete mastery he had over his subject ; as
one of them expressed it — “ not tied down to his
paper, but, when opportunity offered, launching
forth into extemporaneous bursts of eloquence,
raising his audience to his own pitch of enthu-

EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

51

siasm.” “I have, every day I live,” another says,
“ to be thankful for the information I gained ;
and, above all, for the precise method of arrange-
ment, without which knowledge, however abun-
dant, is all but valueless.” It was soon felt, in
short, that a medical teacher of no common
power had entered the field.

But while students were thus gathering round
the lecturer, there were indications no less dis-
tinct of the opinion formed by the more experi-
enced members of the profession. In November
1840 — little more than a year after taking his
degree — he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians ; and it shows how rapidly
he gained the confidence of his brethren, that,
within the next twelve years, he was on four
occasions chosen a member of 'the Council of
seven, by whom the affairs of the College were
and still are managed. In 1852 he was appointed
Honorary Secretary ; and in April of that year
he was one of a deputation of two sent to Lon-
don to represent the views of the College on
the Pharmacy Bill. It is not often that in
youth and early manhood any member of the
medical profession has been able to attain such

52

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

a position in the esteem and confidence of the
College.

In addition to his other work, however, in the
class and in the College of Physicians, Dr. Wood
soon began to take his full share in contributing
to the literature of his profession. So early as
1839, he had a paper in the Medical and Surgical
Journal , on a case of poisoning with corrosive
sublimate. In 1844 he wrote on the “ Patho-
logy and Treatment of Leucorrhcea ” ( Scottish
Medical Gazette ); on the “Treatment of Acute
Rheumatism ” ( Northern Journal of Medicine)-,
on “Diseases of the Skin” (Ibid)] on a “Case
of alleged Luminous Appearance on the Hand
and other parts of the Body before Death ”
(Ibid).

In 1845 he described “A Proposed Method of
Treating protracted Mammary Abscess by the
Breast-pump and Syringe ” (Ibid) ; he wrote
on “ Miss Martineau’s alleged Cure by Mesmer-
ism” (Ibid)] on the “Appearance of the Tongue
as Diagnostic of Diseases” (Ibid)] and on the
“Treatment of Pulmonary Consumption” (Ibid).

During the same year, and in the same
Journal, he had an elaborate series of six

EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

53

articles on ‘''Bright’s Disease.” In sketching the
history of the discovery, he took occasion to refer
to an “admirable paper” by Dr. Christison in
1829 ; and to a “ masterly monograph by him in
1839, which proved that the Edinburgh School
still kept its place in advance of modern
pathology.”

From the above it will be seen how soon he
was prepared to take his full share in contri-
buting to the literature of his profession, and
to what a wide range of subjects his inquiries
extended.

Y.

HOMCEOPATHY.

But besides these papers contributed to the
Journals there were certain subjects to which,
at that early period, Dr. Wood was led to give
special attention.

Fifty years ago the system of homoeopathy
attracted much more notice than it does now.
The undue use of drugs had been prevalent
in medical practice. Though there were not a
few members of the profession who resisted this
tendency, yet too many carried the system of
overdosing to an immoderate extent. The intro-
duction of the homoeopathic system, therefore, may
have been in some measure due to a reaction
from this abuse. It relied on infinitesimal doses.
The theory on which it rested was propounded
by Hahnemann with no small ingenuity, and
was supported by not a few specious argu-
ments. To a considerable extent it found favour

HOMOEOPATHY.

55

with the public, and one of the well-known pro-
fessors in the University avowed himself a con-
vert.

In these circumstances Dr. Wood undertook a
full examination of the subject, and in 1844 he
published a treatise under the title of Homoeo-
pathy Unmasked. The subject was very fully
discussed. Its history, principles, and practice
were laid open, carefully examined, and its falla-
cies exposed. As might have been expected, the
vigorous criticism to which the system was thus
subjected roused the homoeopathists, and called
forth replies — anonymous for the most part — in
which Dr. Wood was assailed in no measured
terms. With these he proceeded to deal in a
second treatise, the Sequel to Homoeopathy Un-
masked, which appeared during the following
year. The controversy — as such controversies
usually do — grew hot; but without going further
into the subject, it may be enough to give,
from Dr. Wood’s correspondence, specimens of
the opinions formed by some of the leading men
of that day.

“ I have read Homoeopathy Unmasked ,” Dr.
John Lizars writes, “ with the Sequel. I admire

5G

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

much your manly independence in exposing such
quackery, and consider you deserve the thanks
of the profession for so doing.” — 30th July
1844.

“ I have just finished the perusal of your Sequel ,
and think you entitled to great credit for the
calmness and temper you have exhibited under
circumstances of great provocation.” — Dr. Pagan,
20th July 1844.

“ I think the profession and the public much
indebted to you for your exposure of the homoeo-
pathic humbug.” — Sir George Ballingall.

Without multiplying such quotations, it may be
enough to give the opinion of two of the ablest men
in the profession — one of the highest authority in
Edinburgh, and the other in London.

Dr. Abercrombie writes : “ I have been reading
your volume with much interest, and trust it will
have much influence in putting down that miser-
able humbug.”

Dr. Copland, whose Cyclopcedia of Medicine
was a book of the highest authority in its day,
speaks in still stronger terms :

“Many thanks for your very able work on
Homoeopathy, and your full exposure of that im-

HOMOEOPATHY.

57

posture. I have read it with much interest. The
thing is an abomination, disgraceful to those who
practise it, and not to be contemplated without
suggesting most humiliating ideas of human
nature, and of the state of society in which it
flourishes.” — 3 Old Burlington Street, 1st May
1844.

These extracts sufficiently show the view taken
by his professional brethren of the service which
Dr. Wood had rendered on this occasion. It
must be confessed that almost unavoidably it
brought on him in certain quarters no small
share of odium. In debate, his method was to
say honestly, in a straightforward way, what he
believed to be true. If, as sometimes happened,
his opponents took offence, he regretted the re-
sult, but he was willing to bear it for the sake of
what he believed to be the cause of truth. In
the foregoing extracts the general feeling of the
profession has been sufficiently indicated. The
medical journals, such as the London Gazette, the
Medical Revieiv, the Northern Journal, and
others, were equally emphatic ; and even literary
periodicals, like the Atlienceum and Frazers
Magazine, bore the strongest testimony to the

58

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

ability with which Dr. Wood had dealt with the
subject. He had every reason to be satisfied
with the result.

Connected with this there was the kindred
subject of Rational Medicine to which he called
public attention.

In 1849 the College of Surgeons opened an
Extra-mural School of Medicine in newly-erected
class-rooms, and Dr. Wood was called on to
deliver the Inaugural Address, which he did in
presence of a numerous audience. The lecture
was afterwards published as a separate treatise,
under the title of Rational Medicine : a Vindica-
tion. His aim was to defend the claims of
medicine to the rank of a science carrying on its
investigations, and establishing its conclusions, by
strictly scientific methods. In the course of the
discussion he was led to pass in review various
points of immediate interest to medical men, and
among these — in an Appendix — the subject of
Mesmerism, in connection with certain state-
ments of Miss Martineau.

The publication of this lecture at once
attracted general notice. Letters of approval
were received from all parts of the country, and

HOMCEOPATHY.

59

some extracts from these will show the esteem
in which it was held.

‘ There never was a period,’ says Dr. Cooke of
London (24tli October 1850), ‘when the diffusion
of rational principles was more important. It is
really painful to observe how even sensible
people have permitted themselves to become
the dupes of chimerical views and measures,
often imposed upon by false premises, and yet
more frequently permitting disease to advance
insidiously, whilst they are vainly, and perhaps
boastfully, toying with their unavailing globules.

I beg to present my thanks for your
Vindication .’

‘For myself,’ writes Sir William Ferguson
(4th February 1850), ‘I shall always feel proud
of my early association with the Eoyal College
of Surgeons of Edinburgh ; and I am delighted
to perceive that the efforts of that College on
behalf of the profession have the approbation
and support of so able and zealous an advocate.’

‘Truly in such times a paper like this was
needed to warn the student from the many
theories tempting him by their novelty. In
my humble opinion you have not only done

GO

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

this, hut done it admirably.’ — Dr. Jackson,
2 2d J anuary 1850.

‘ The perusal of the Address afforded me
much pleasure. The numerous glances, so to
speak, which it contains towards that which is
defective, and the suggestions as to the mode
in which these defects should be supplied, tend
to give the Address that healthy tone, both
morally and medically, which admirably fits
it for an introductory lecture. It is delight-
ful to me, amidst the variety of paths taken by
different labourers, to be able to observe, as I
think I do, those distant lights which will, I
think, at no very distant period, bring medical
science under the full illuminating influence of
inductive philosophy.’ — Dr. Macilwain, London,
13th February 1850.

In still more decisive terms Sir J. Y. Simpson
expresses himself :

‘The able and eloquent contents of your hand-
some book I have perused with both pleasure and
instruction. It is a decided step in the journey
of the healing art to a title to confidence out of
the limbo of haphazard, which some of its high-
est men have said it has long been doomed to.

HOMOEOPATHY.

61

‘ The mesmeric phenomena which I have seen
— and especially the phreno-mesmeric — in cir-
cumstances which put collusion out of the
question, have impressed me too strongly to
leave me free to disbelieve their reality, or to
judge between you and Miss Martineau ; but
thus much I can judge, that you have managed
your argument admirably. (1849.) I have before
had occasion to commend your eloquent style
and language, which gives a pleasing popular
character to even professional subjects.’

As to Miss Martineau, an eminent London sur-
geon, Mr. Burford Norman (14th March 1850),
‘ would wish to bear his testimony to Dr. Wood,
as an entire stranger to him, in regard to what
he conceives to be the very simple, lucid, and
satisfactory criticism of Miss Martineau’s case,
and the supposed experience of Mesmerism.’
‘Very many thanks for your admirable
Address, which I have read with much pleasure.
Miss Martineau, I think, should be much obliged
to you for your forbearance in her case.’ — Dr.
Watt, St. Andrews, 24th July 1850.

Such were the terms in which this work was
received by the profession. There was nothing

62

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

on wliich Dr. Wood felt more decidedly than
his determination, so far as in him lay, to have
medicine rescued from the quackeries and em-
piricisms by which it has too often been dis-
credited, and to see it placed on the sure
ground of rigorous scientific investigation. He
was well aware of how much remained to be
done in order to supply what was defective,
and correct what was erroneous in the views of
medical men ; but his aim was to stimulate
himself and others, and urge on the work that
needed to be done ; and it could not but be
gratifying that the efforts which he had made,
and the views which he propounded in the
opening lecture, met with such general accept-
ance. In what light Dr. Wood’s arguments
presented themselves to non-professional readers
the following letter from an intimate friend of
his early days, Sheriff Cleghorn, will sufficiently
show : —

“ I thank you for your kind present of the
Inaugural Lecture, which reached me when I
was in bed with influenza. I was greatly de-
lighted with it, both in point of argument and
expression, and it had the additional charm of

HOMOEOPATHY.

63

relieving the tedium of the epidemic, which has
now quitted me. I think you have successfully,
and in an interesting way, shown the claim of
medicine to be a science, and to be treated as
such. I want much to see the new school.”

In after life Dr. Wood still continued his
contributions to the literature of his profession,
sometimes in separate publications, but more
frequently in the transactions of medical societies,
or in papers which appeared in the medical
journals.

Among the more important of these may be
mentioned —

An article “ On the Nervous Element in
Disease” — ( Monthly Journal , February 1853;
Ranking’s Abstract , vol. xii., p. 40). This was
afterwards published separately, and “ contributed
largely to the recent change of treatment of
these diseases.”

“ Acting for the Edinburgh College of Physi-
cians,” Dr. Wood “was instrumental in intro-
ducing many changes into the Lunacy Bill.”

In 1855 he wrote his well-known paper, “ On
a New Method of Treating Neuralgia by Sub-
cutaneous Injection.” It appeared first in the

64

MEMOIR OF DJR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal of
that year, but was afterwards separately pub-
lished and translated into most European lan-
guages. The subject is more fully referred U),
infra, section vii., p. 107.

“ What is Mesmerism ? An Attempt to ex-
plain its Phenomena.” Edinburgh, Sutherland
and Knox, 1851.

“ Vaccination in Scotland as it Is, Was, and
Ought to Be,” 1860. The suggestions in this
pamphlet “ were avowedly followed by those
who prepared the Vaccination Act for Scotland.”
Dr. Wood was “ the sole witness for Scotland,
examined before the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on Vaccination in 1871.”

“ Preliminary Education required by the
Student of Medicine : A Discourse before the
Harveian Society.” Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd,
1868.

VI.

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK.

During all these early years, however, there
was another sphere of work to which he gave
much time and thought. Like many earnest
Christian men of eminence — the Chancellors, Lord
Cairns and Lord Selborne, for example — he took
a deep interest in the education of the young,
both religious and secular.

From childhood he had the inestimable advan-
tage of being brought up amidst the religious
influences of a Christian home. In the Memoirs
of Dr. Chalmers there will be found a reference
to the time when Dr. Wood, his father, began
to come under the power of decided evangelical
religion.1 Kilmany, where Dr. Chalmers re-
sided, when he underwent his own great spiritual
change, was not far from Cupar. He was a rela-
tive of Mrs. Wood, and was in close and friendly

1 Vol. i. p. 480.
E

G6 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

intercourse with the family. As might have
been expected, his conversation and influence,
while in the fervour of his new-born zeal, pro-
duced lasting effects on those with whom he
had intercourse. All who knew Dr. Wood in
after life were well aware of how unobtrusively,
yet how consistently, for long years he took his
part in the duties of the Christian life, and it
need not be said how much his son owed to the
example and influence of a father whose decision
and weight of character were felt by all with
whom he came in contact.

But not less was he indebted to his mother,
whose mental gifts had been cultivated both in
science and literature to an extent which at that
time was far from common. A devout and
earnest follower of Christ, she commended the
truth by all that was amiable and kindly, and
was regarded by all who knew her (and especially
by those who knew her best), as a bright example
of Christian excellence in its most attractive
form.1

1 Already in early life slie had become decided in her views of
evangelical religion, and how intelligently she could state the
grounds of her belief may be inferred from what Dr. Chalmers

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 67

A single extract will show in what spirit her
influence was used. Shortly after Alexander
entered on his medical studies Mrs. Wood had
gone to Fife, and wrote from Elie, 30th August
1834

“ 1 would have liked to have had you with
me, but I am quite sure that it is much better
for you to remain where you are. Few students
have the advantage of such a father, so whiling
and so able to instruct them, and I look upon it
as a peculiar advantage just at this time that he
is devoting himself so much to you. You will
afterwards feel the advantage of it, and I have
no doubt will look back in after years to this

says as to the benefit he derived from her conversation at the
time of his own change. It was no slight service to have, in some
measure, aided such a mind in the crisis of his spiritual history.

In 1811 he was on a visit to his father, and makes the follow-
ing entries in his Journal : —

“ January 28th. — Miss Mary Wood called and spent the day
with us. We had much conversation about religion ; and, 0
God ! may I grow in faith and charity.

“ January 30th. — I am certainly obliged to Miss Wood.
Through her I have enlarged my observations on religious senti-
ments. I have imbibed a high respect for the peculiar doctrines.
1 feel more cordially than ever that my sufficiency is of Christ,
and that faith in Him is the most comprehensive principle of
practice.” — Memoirs , vol. i., p. 201.

68

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

summer as one of the first importance, and
rejoice that so much of it has been devoted to
study with your father. You should endeavour
to meet his instructions with alacrity, and thus
prove to him that you are conscious of your great
advantages, for I need not tell you how much
more pleasantly labour proceeds when hearts are
united in it. Your profession is unlike most
others in this, that as by lengthening life you
may save the immortal soul, every energy of
mind should be given to the study and the
practice of it, keeping in mind that even a
clergyman, in many instances, must yield to
you in usefulness, as you can gain admittance
where he is excluded. Think seriously of this,
my dear boy, and pray God to enable you to
turn your profession to the' noblest ends.”

She died in 1864, after an illness of severe
and protracted suffering ; and I remember her
son remarking how mysterious it was, that of
all the deathbeds he had seen as a physician
the two most distressing cases of protracted
suffering were those of the two holiest and most
saintly Christians he had ever known, one of
them his own mother. Nothing was more

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 69

marked than the influence she had over him to
the end of her life.

On coming to Edinburgh the family had placed
themselves under the ministry of Dr. Gordon,
then in the fulness of his power as a preacher.
Seldom has the pulpit exercised such command-

ins influence, and it was no common benefit that

° .

Alexander Wood grew up under such a ministry.
When in long years after, Dr. Gordon died —
1853 — of all the tributes to his memory which
appeared in the local press, that given in the
Caledonian Mercury , and written by Dr. Wood,
was regarded as by far the best and most
senerous estimate of one of the most outstand-
ing men among the ministers of his day.

From an early period, as we have seen,
Alexander Wood began to take an interest in
the religious movements of the time. ‘ I think
it must have been in 1828 or 1829/ he says,
‘ that the Rev. Edward Irving delivered a
course of lectures on prophecy in Edinburgh,
at six a.m. They must, have been no ordin-
ary lectures that would make a schoolboy get
out of his bed to attend them at that hour,
having: to be at school at nine a.m.. still I

70

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

missed few of them, and I remember many of
them yet.’ Irving was indeed no common
lecturer, but it must be added he was no
common schoolboy who would be drawn to give
attendance under such circumstances. c Edward
Irving,’ he continues, ‘ whom I often saw, was a
man of striking appearance. Towering in height
above most men, with long flowing black locks
and a squint, he must have attracted attention
even when unknown. Our own minister, Dr.
Gordon, at that time lived in one of those large
self-contained houses in Lauriston of which I
have spoken. The house still stands, but the
stable and grounds have disappeared. After
entering the gate, which was at the back of
the house, you had to pass between the gable
and the stable to reach the front door. At the
stable door was a kennel, with a large Tweed
retriever. I don’t think Dr. Gordon quite
approved of my attending these lectures, for he
told me very emphatically, “ my dog barks at
all beggars, but Mr. Irving is the only gentleman
to whom he ever evinced displeasure 1” ’

The first Christian work in which Alexander
Wood engaged was in connection with the Sabbath-

O O

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 71

school carried on by Dr. Muir of St. Stephen’s,
whose sons were his bosom friends. There may
be some still alive who remember the humble
premises in a lane between St. Vincent Street
and North-West Circus Place, where the school
was held, before being removed to a more
spacious building in Brunswick Street. The
superintendent under Dr. Muir was Mr. Thomson,
a devoted Christian teacher. It was there Dr.
"Wood first took part in Sabbath-school work,
and as in everything in which he engaged it was
done with all his heart. Not only was religious
instruction imparted, but the welfare of the
children in other respects became the object of
his anxious care. He knew them not only in
school, but in their homes, his object being their
highest welfare. Long afterwards he watched
over them, and in not a few cases aided their
• advancement in life.

AVhile this was going on the great conflict
which ended in the Disruption of 1843 was in
full course. As Dr. Gordon, to whose congre-
gation the family belonged, was one of the
leaders in the movement, they naturally took a
deep interest in the discussions of the Ten Years’

72

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Conflict, and the evangelical majority, which
afterwards formed the Free Church, had no more
decided supporters.

It was about this time, at the outset of his
professional career, that he saw it to be his
duty to attach himself to the congregation
(then under the ministry of the Rev. A.
Brown) in the district of St. Bernard’s,
where so much of his professional work among
the poor was carried on. Soon afterwards he
was chosen an elder, and was associated in the
Kirk-Session with Mr. Murray Dunlop and other
men of high standing. While seeking to dis-
charge the duties of the eldership, and to advance
the welfare of the congregation, the chosen
department of work to which he devoted his
energies was the education of the young.

The Free Church, it is well known, was com-
pelled after the Disruption to take a prominent
part in providing for the education of the country.
All the teachers who held Free Church principles
were expelled by the Established Church ; and,
having thus lost their situations, work had to be
found for them. It so happened at that time
that Scotland, while living on the reputation of

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 73

the past, was far from being a well-educated
country. Carefully prepared statistics showed
that at least a hundred thousand children were
growing up, either with no education, or with
none that deserved the name. It was difficult
for the Free Church to take on herself a share of
this work in addition to her other burdens, but
she was compelled. When the teachers who held
her principles were cast out, she had to find
them employment, and the result was that her
education scheme was set up, which soon made
itself felt all over Scotland in such a way, that
both in the number of its pupils and in the high
educational results obtained, it took a prominent
position among the institutions of the country.
The case of St. Bernard’s is a fair example of
how this was brought about. The congregation
of St. Stephen’s, under the ministry of the well-
known Dr. Muir, had been laudably zealous
in the cause of education, and had a flourishing
day school, as well as that Sabbath-school to
which we have referred, where Dr. Wood began
his work. Some of the teachers in the day
school held Free Church principles, and
having, as in so many other cases, lost their

74

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

situations, the neighbouring Free Church con-
gregation of St. Bernard’s naturally came to
their aid. A school was opened in which they
were employed, and, as one of the directors of
that school, Dr. Wood found a congenial field in
which he took the deepest interest. Fortun-
ately we have some reminiscences furnished by
Mr. Dingwall, the head-master, in which Dr.
Wood’s zeal and energy are made apparent.

It was in no narrow-minded spirit that he
took up this work.

“ Contiguous to the site of St. Bernard’s Free
Church a large space of ground was bought,
mainly through Dr. Wood’s personal exertions,
on which was built the Northern District
School. One of the elders wished it to be
called ‘ Free St. Bernard’s,’ but the Doctor re-
sisted. Strong Free Churchman though he was,
he said the school must not be confined ecclesi-
astically. It is to be more than a church
institution. In Stockbridge there is scope
enough for a large school, but even ‘ Stock-
bridge ’ has more of the local appellation than is
required ; let us call it the * Northern District
School.’ And so from 1844 it continued to be

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 7 5

called till long afterwards, when it was merged
in the spacious Board School erected in the im-
mediate neighbourhood.

“ Few institutions of the kind had such a
directorate of men, conversant both with the
theory and practice of teaching, as this school
then had. Among others there were the Rev.
A. W. Brown, Mr. John Hunter of Craigcrook,
auditor of the Court of Session ; Dr. Alexander
Reid, rector of Circus Place School ; Mr. J ohn
Menzies, etc. ; but the one to whom all deferred
was Dr. Wood. My own introduction to him
dates from a Monday morning in 1846, when I
got a message from a young man, written in that
bold, round, almost perpendicular style with
which afterwards I was to be so familiar. ‘Dr.
Wood’s compliments, and would you oblige him
by coming to Henderson Row? He has sent
a cab, so that little time may be lost.’ On
being brought into one of the rooms where a
class of youngsters was assembled, a tall gentle-
man, dressed, I recollect as if it were yesterday,
in a black surtout coat, pure white trousers, with
two or three fern fronds and a beautiful flower
in the left lappet of his coat, came from the far

76

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

end of the room, shook hands, and simply said,
c Will you take this class for a few minutes ?
The question in usual course is Christ as our King.’
We had gone on barely five minutes, when, on
getting what I thought to be a clear and simple
answer toward the down end of the class, I said,
‘ Go up a dozen places.’ I immediately added,
turning to the Doctor, ‘ Perhaps you don’t give
and take places.’ ‘Well, we don’t in our re-
ligious lessons as a rule, but that will do. Do
you know any person in Edinburgh?’ I said,
c Mr. Gibson and Mr. Oliphant.’ ‘ Two better
men you couldn’t know,’ and in a quarter of an
hour from my entering the school I was engaged
as one of its teachers. I stipulated that I should
be allowed to attend the University. One of
the three other gentlemen who were present de-
murred to this, when the Doctor said, ‘Yes, we
will let him, though I should teach his class the
hour he is away;’ and so began an acquaintance-
ship that never knew a break, in which, as years
passed on, the director of the school was the
friend and unwearied mentor, both in school
work and in private reading. It would be diffi-
cult to over-estimate the advantages that not

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 77

only all of us teachers, but many of the pupils,
also experienced from Dr. Wood’s sound judg-
ment and administrative ability.

“ Seldom a day passed that he did not call for a
few minutes at least. He knew the major part
of the scholars by name — often considerably over
200 in attendance — and was conversant with the
environments of not a few of them. ‘ Tell your
mother, my little man, when you go home at the
end of the lesson, to give you a warm drink, tie
a warm stocking round your throat, and in the
morning you will come back and leave that cough
behind you,’ was the kind of remark I have
heard him make to a youngster whose spirits,
poor fellow, were better than his health. We
began a custom of having flowers on the teacher’s
table, brought by some of the pupils every
morning, and the Doctor brought a pair of vases
to keep them in, as his contribution to the
amenity of the room. Not unfrequently, if he
happened to be in when the classes were chang-
ing, he would call attention to the beauty of
this petal, or of the peculiarity of that calyx.
One rule that he inculcated was, that the pupils
were never to be at lessons longer than two

78

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

hours at a time, and that five hours a day was
long enough to do work in. Often as eleven
o’clock struck, did he come at the side door, that
he might see the young folks as they ran and
played in the quarter of an hour of recess. If
he saw any of the teachers looking over a hook
at that time, he would say, ‘ Come and let us see
what is the game for this time of year in the
playground.’ Standing on the steps of the side
entrance of the school, and looking across the
road, was the Edinburgh Academy, where he had
himself got his early education. Not unfre-
quently I have seen him watching the play of
the youths in front, quoting some thought such
as, ‘ Idle time not idly spent,’ and then, simply
by turning round, he could see the humbler
pupils of our school in the exuberance of their
fun and frolic. One day he said, ‘ If this were
the wishing gate we were talking about the other
evening, I could wish to don Jack’s invisible
coat, and have a run too.’”

When a man of such energy and ability threw
himself thus into the work, it was no wonder
that the Northern District School took a high
educational position. Strangers from a distance

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 79

wishing to have a specimen of the common
schools of Scotland at their best, began to find
their way to Henderson Row, and the influence
and example of the school, and especially of
Dr. Wood as an educational authority, began to
be more widely felt.

“The original Educational Code of 1846 was
the work of Dr. K. (afterwards Sir James K.)
Sliuttleworth ; and so far as real education —
the preparation for after-life — is concerned, will
compare more than favourably with any of the
revised codes that have been issued since 1862.
Sir James, on his visits to Edinburgh, called
with Mr. John Gibson, the first Inspector of
Schools for Scotland, at Henderson Row, and
from what came under my observation in these
early years, I know both gentlemen looked on
Dr. Wood as a sound practical authority on the
well-being and management of schools. In the
Blue Books of that date, the trust-deed of the
Northern District School, mainly drawn up by
him, was adopted by the Committee of Council
on Education as the model trust-deed for schools
in Scotland. Never a week passed but the
school had numerous visitors to see its working,

80

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

whose routine, of course, was carried on the
same whether any were present or not. I have
said to the Doctor more than once, that we were
indebted to him for a great proportion of our
visitors, both through the year and chiefly at
the close of the session, when our large room
was filled in every corner. He was accustomed
to say — ‘ 1 am somewhat like Wilberforce, who
gave every man’s hobby a feed of corn. The
school is my hobby, and our professional friends
give my hobby a return feed of corn.’ ”

Zeal such as this in the cause of education
obviously fitted him for a wider field, and, at the
request of Dr. Candlisli, he consented to become
a member of the Education Committee of the
General Assembly, where he soon took a pro-
minent place. In the affairs of the Training
Colleges especially, for a long course of years,
he gave most important counsel and aid ; prov-
ing, as Mr. Dingwall states, “ one of the most
energetic and assiduous members of the acting
committee under the able convenership of Dr.
Candlish.”

As an example of the kind of service he was
sometimes called on to render, we may refer to

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 81

an address, which, at the request of the Com-
mittee, he delivered to the students in Moray
House at the opening of the session, when he
took occasion to describe at some length what the
great aim of education ought to he. The views
of one who had proved himself so enlightened
a friend to the cause, are well deserving of
notice, and some of the leading points of this
address may here he given.

It was no light work, he reminded the students,
on which they were entering. They were to he
the trainers of the future generation, and they
came to the college to have their own minds
disciplined for the task, and prepared to take
their place in the great Christian army which
has to do battle against ignorance and evil in
every form. ‘ Have you ever seriously con-
sidered what education means ? It is commonly
asserted that knowledge is power, and many a
teacher sets out with this popular fallacy, and
may succeed in imparting knowledge, but may
lamentably fail in conferring power. And yet
to develop power ought to he the great aim of
all your efforts. Mere knowledge is not power.
Thought is power ; sagacity is power ; perse ver-

82

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

ance is power ; probity is power ; godliness is
power. Can you by education impart all or
any of these ? No ; but you can develop the
mental and moral faculties, and so place your
pupil in the most fitting position to acquire
them. Therefore, in commencing your training
as educators, impress this truth deeply on your
minds, and carry it along with you in every
stage of your progress. If you mould your
method upon it, you will give a higher, a nobler, a
more intellectual aim to all your labours, making
it your duty to cultivate — not merely to inform
— the mind. If, in this sordid and utilitarian
age, you are content to look not so much to the
present as to the future, when, having developed
the intellectual powers of your pupils, you send
them forth to discover and classify for them-
selves, and to illustrate and explain for others,
you will train, and prune, and invigorate the
vine in the early spring, and look for the fruit
in the distant autumn instead of forcing preco-
cious grapes. “ Behold the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long
patience for it, until he receive the early and the
latter rain. Be ye also patient.” (James v. 7.)

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 83

‘If you study the writings of Plato, you will
find that what gave him his power over the men
of his own generation, and makes him still a
living power with all who can appreciate what
is noble in ancient philosophy, was, that in
opposition to the sophists, he sought to awaken
the principle and method of self-development.
He refused to regard the mind as a mere passive
recipient of various knowledge ; he treated it
rather as possessing a germinal power, which
craved only the knowledge which it could appro-
priate. Have not every one of you met, or at
least read of, some bookworm, some man of
prodigious knowledge, who lay useless on the
sea of life like a water-logged vessel. His know-
ledge was useless, because his mind had not been
educated ; and though, perhaps, the most learned
and the best informed man in the whole range
of your acquaintance, he was utterly unfit for
the practical business of life.’

Having struck this keynote, Dr. Wood goes
on to speak in detail of the different faculties of
the mind, and how they ought to be developed.

‘ The training of the senses to activity and
accuracy is the earliest part of the education

84

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

of the individual. Not only so, but it is through
the senses that the greater part of all education
must be carried on. Observation, then, is the
first power to be cultivated. For our Creator
has so willed it that the universe is the great
training-school of the mind, and the senses are
the instruments by which the mind operates upon
it. Grammar and language appeal to the ear ;
arithmetic numbers the sensible objects which
the eye perceives ; mathematics takes note of
their form and motions ; geography looks round
on the world where we are placed ; astronomy
points upward to the heavenly host walking in
brightness; and chemistry, botany, mineralogy,
and geology are all sciences of observation.
These are the instruments of education. By
these we discipline the mind, because by these
the external world of matter is brought into
contact with the inner world of the soul.

‘ Of late years the exercise of the senses has
been deemed of more importance than formerly
as a means of educating the mind. To Pestal-
lozzi belongs undoubtedly the credit of having
first drawn attention to the importance of this;
and the system which he introduced, modified.

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 85

and improved by various imitators, bas cul-
minated in our lessons on objects, lessons on
common things, which, though sneered at and
despised, seem to me more likely truly to
develop faculties of the highest use, and to
provide a kind of knowledge that will be useful
in the future occupations of your pupils, than
one-half of those arbitrary rules and isolated
facts, which, after all, are but exercises of
memory, and the acquisition of which is attended
with so much labour and pain.

‘ How often must it have occurred to you in
abstract teaching, while engaged in what ap-
peared to you a most interesting lesson, to see
the wandering eye of a pupil following some
sensible object, or his ear deaf to the accents of
his master’s voice, but all alive to some familiar
sound borne on it by some distant breeze. “ Oh,
the inattentive, troublesome child ! ” you exclaim.
“ 0 teacher! inattentive to the voice of nature !”
we cry in our turn. A child has five senses,
and you address yourself constantly but to one,
beseeching him to “ lend you his ears ” only, and
let the guests into Mansoul by that portal. Do
you think he will let the other four rust on

86

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

their hinges ? Bearing in mind these two
important truths which I have endeavoured to
illustrate — first, That the work of education con-
sists in daily training the mental faculties ;
second, That the means of training can only
be supplied by ideas communicated to, and
operated on, by the mind ; and that these
ideas are, in the first instance, presented to
it by the senses or by reflection, you have
arrived at a knowledge of two of the primary
faculties of the intellect, called by philosophers
Sensation and Perception ; the former regarding
the operation of the mind receiving ideas of
external objects through the senses, the latter
regarding the operations of the mind alike in
reference to the objects of external nature through
sensation, and those of the mind itself through
consciousness.’

With these principles in view, he proceeds to
show their application to the cultivation* of
memory, judgment, reasoning, the will, the
imagination, and the whole circle of the mental
powers. As an example of how the different
topics are handled, we give part of his remarks
on the study of language.

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 87

‘ If the aim proposed by education be the mere
possession or the acquisition of a kind of know-
ledge which shall be immediately convertible into
coin in this money-making age, then a full philo-
sophical study of language, and of grammar as a
stepping-stone to it, is not desirable ; but if, on
the other hand, you are to judge of the effect of
education by the extent to which the mind has
been exercised and developed, by the powers
which have been strengthened for contests in the
battle of life, by the amount of thought which
school training has called into active operation,
you will see that language taught through gram-
mar— and especially the accidence, i. e. , the philo-
logical part of the training, that which teaches
the flexion of nouns, the conjugation of verbs,
the rules of syntax, the analysis, structure, and
composition of sentences — is the most efficient in-
strument of mental training. In support of this,
and of much that I have said, I would quote a
single sentence from a lecture by my old and
revered teacher Professor Pillans, and I can quote
no higher or more philosophical authority. He
says that, “ in the study of language, when pro-
perly simplified and explained, we find for our

88 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

pupils a constant exercise in practical logic which
brings into play the powers of memory, of judg-
ment, of abstraction, of combination of ideas, and
of reflection on the subjects of our own conscious-
ness, which induces habits of quick and sustained
attention, facility in sifting and comparing evi-
dence, and promptitude in deciding ; which pro-
duces, in short, a general acuteness and activity
of the intellectual powers.’”

Much fuller extracts would be required to do
justice to the ability and powrer of Dr. Wood’s
address, but for the present it may be enough to
give some portion of his closing remarks.

Referring to the children entrusted to their
care, he asks, ‘ What are we to say to them as
moral and immortal beings? Is the mere train-
ing of the intellect sufficient to enable men to
discharge their duty, even in this lower world ?
What does all experience teach us ? Even intel-
lectual training without moral discipline may
debase and not elevate ; may darken instead of
enlightening ; may show that in the lowest deep
of mere animal life there is a lower still, when
the tree of knowledge has been made to bear the
fruit of evil, and having ceased to be the mother

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 89

of virtue arid knowledge, has been degraded into
a source of sin and crime.

‘ Be it yours, then, to cultivate the whole
nature of man. Intellectual and moral excel-
lence is the worthiest of all human pursuits.
Intellectual and moral training must go hand in
hand. Thus only can the image of his Creator,
which sin has effaced, be restored. Thus only
can an immortal being be fitted for the high
destiny for which his Creator prepared him. Be
impressed then, I beseech you, with some fitting
reverence for your high vocation. The children
you train now are to be the men of hereafter.
The men of hereafter ! What strange ideas do
not these words evoke. You have to deal, not
with callous, insensate, adult humanity, trained
and disciplined in many a rugged school. It
is your more blessed task to unfold, springing
from the soil, full many a bud of promise, destined
to bear immortal fruit.

‘ Before the teachers of this age, the great
teachers and master minds of succeeding genera-
tions creep in leading strings ; and as one has well
expressed it, you may be guiding future suns
like little wandering stars. You cannot lift the

90

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

curtain that hides the future in their case any
more than in your own. Their course of life
will be various, and various their fate. And
well it is that you cannot see into the future.
A single glance might damp ardour the most fer-
vent, and extinguish aspirations the most sub-
lime. And yet why should it? Knowledge
such as we have described, given in its entirety ;
knowledge adapted not only for time but for
eternity ; knowledge which trains the whole man
as an intellectual, moral and spiritual being,
sends him not out into the battle of life to carry
on the warfare on his own charges. It gives
him the “whole armour of God, that he may be
able to stand in the evil day, and having done
all to stand.” You send your vessels into the
stormy sea of life, and many a tempest will they
encounter before the voyage is ended. But you
have taught them to use the sails which are to
impel their progress, and the rudder which is to
steer their course, and the compass is on board
to point them continually to the Star of Bethle-
hem, the pole star of all their hopes. God grant
that they may reach the desired haven ! Your
teaching like —

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 91

‘ “ The quality of mercy is not strained,

It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven
Upon the plain beneath ; it is twice blessed —

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

‘ Doce ut disccis is a maxim, the truth of which
every day’s experience verifies, and feeling this
throughout all your lives, that you are scholars
as well as teachers, that Paul may plant and
Apollos water, but God alone can give the
increase ; and coming in all humility yourselves
to the foot of the Cross, may you be preserved
from that knowledge that pufieth up, and filled
with the love that crucifieth. May the daily
prayer of each of you be that collect which a
true poet has left on record as his own : “ Lord,
give us heart to turn all knowledge to Thy glory,
and not to our own. Keep us from being deluded
with the lights of vain philosophy. Keep us
from the pride of human reason. Let us not
think our own thoughts, nor dream our own
imaginations, but in all things, acting under the
good guidance of the Holy Spirit, may we live in
all simplicity, humility, and singleness of heart
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, now and for ever-
more. Amen.’”

92

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Another proof of liis zeal in the cause of
education was his editing for a time the Free
Church Educational Journal , published by
Lowe, Edinburgh. It had an able staff of
contributors — men like Dr. Cancllish, Dr. Charles
Wilson, and Mr. Scrymgeour, both afterwards
Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools; Dr. Gunn
of the High School, Dr. Reid of Circus Place
School, the Rev. W. Wood of Elie, Mr. William
Dickson, Mr. Dingwall, and other zealous
educationists, but “Dr. Wood was its insp mug-
spirit from the first.” Many questions of educa-
tional interest were discussed in its pages with
marked ability — no contributions being more
conspicuous than those of Dr. Wood himself.
Among these, Mr. Dingwall states, “ I find three
papers by him on Physical Education ; a Graphic
Account of a Supposed Visit to a Sabbath-school ;
on Music as a Branch of Popular Education ; a
Review of Patterson’s Zoology for the use of
Schools ; and a practical paper on the Mode of
Collecting Fees in the Northern District School.”
The interest which the public took in such sub-
jects, however, was limited ; the support given to
the Journal was disappointing, and after con-

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 93

tinning from March 1 8 4 8 to F ebruary 1 8 5 0, it came
to an end, “ having died,” as Dr. Wood remarked,
“ of languid circulation, like many a good man.”

But it was not only in such addresses and
literary efforts that Dr. Wood’s valuable services
were rendered. The Committee, in administer-
ing the affairs of a scheme embracing so many
hundreds of schools, had often delicate and diffi-
cult questions to deal with ; and not seldom it
happened that, in the midst of its anxious deli-
berations, Dr. Wood’s practical experience and
business talents were found of the utmost value.
Of this there were many instances which must
be omitted, but one may be referred to as an
example, the circumstances of which are well
known to the present writer.

Mr. Hugh Miller, in the columns of the Witness
newspaper, on one occasion commenced a series
of articles attacking the management of the
Committee on Education, and more especially
Dr. Candlish, the convener. It appears from
his Life that a personal misunderstanding had
arisen between him and Dr. Candlish, and he
wrote under feelings of unusual keenness.
Meantime the carrying on of the Education

94

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Scheme and the raising of the funds had all
along been an uphill work, requiring Dr. Cand-
lish’s utmost influence to make it a success, and
the attack of so formidable a controversialist,
and one who had rendered such important services
to the Free Church, was a most serious danger,
threatening to mar the whole prospects of the
work. Unfortunately, when Dr. Candlish took
up his pen to reply in the columns of the Witness,
he wrote hastily, without the careful examination
of details which would have been required, and
gave his opponent advantages of which he
availed himself with all his usual ability.
Things were beginning to assume a serious aspect
when Dr. Wood resolved to make a thorough ex-
amination of the whole details. He was sitting
in the Offices of the Church — then at 38 York
Place — with all the documents before him, when
Dr. Candlish came into the room, and, with an
exclamation of surprise, asked what was going
on. On being told he retired with a smile, and
left the matter in Dr. Wood’s hands.

After thoroughly satisfying himself that Mr.
Miller’s accusations were founded on a mistake,
the matter was brought before the Education

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 95

Committee, and a sub-committee was appointed
with instructions to draw up a full statement of
the facts. This was accordingly done, and it
was made to appear that the defence of Dr.
Candlish and his friends was impregnable. After
being considered and approved by the Com-
mittee, the statement was published for the
information of the Church. It appeared in the
columns of the Witness, and so thoroughly had
the case been stated that it decided the con-
troversy. Never again were these accusations
heard of, and it was chiefly to Dr. Wood that
Dr. Candlish and the Committee owed this vindi-
cation.

Such was one example of the services rendered
through a long course of years. Whenever cir-
cumstances of special difficulty or delicacy arose
in the management of the Education Scheme,
and more especially in conducting the affairs of
the Normal School, there was no one to whom
Dr. Candlish so readily had recourse as to Dr.
Wood, and by no one was aid given more will-
ingly and cordially. The successful carrying on
of the scheme was wonderful in the midst of the
difficulties with which it had to contend, and

96

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

there were few to whom it owed so much as to
Dr. Wood with his enlightened views and busi-
ness talents.

Reverting now to the congregation of St.
Bernard’s, it is right to notice what was done in
the Sabbath-school. As we have already seen,
the first Christian work in which Dr. Wood en-
gaged was in connection with the Sabbath-school
carried on under Dr. Muir, of St. Stephen’s. He
was then a very young man, but as years went
on, through youth and early manhood, the work
was never relaxed. When the Disruption came
in 1843, though the scene was changed, the
teaching went on with unabated vigour, the
zeal and the energy which we have seen he
threw into the management of the Northern
District School during the week, being still more
conspicuous on the Sabbath. The school was
carried on in the same premises as the day school,
and consisted to a large extent of the same
children. The course of instruction was con-
ducted in such a way that the secular and the
sacred were fitted to each other. The object
aimed at was to have the lessons of the week
days pervaded by the sacred influence of the

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 97

Sabbath, and in the Sabbath teaching to have
the same intellectual energy which was con-
spicuous in the school during the week. Never
was Dr. Wood seen more in his element than on
the Sabbath evening at the close of the school
work, when pupils and teachers gathered round
him. “He introduced,” says Mr. Dingwall, “a
feature that kept up the attention of the scholars
to the last. After the various classes had been
taught by their respective teachers, there was a
break for three minutes, when they were all re-
arranged in rows fronting the master’s desk, and
a general lesson was given on that which had
been taught in the classes. When able to be
present, which was three times out of every four,
he gave this lesson, and the tact with which —
not in speaking, but in the more difficult work
of teaching — he kept the sustained interest of the
youngest as well as the oldest present, rendered
this lesson most edifying to us all. He en-
couraged the pupils to ask questions as well as to
answer his. I have noticed in his giving: this
lesson, as I did in his not unfrequent speeches on
public occasions, when his fine presence was a
perpetual letter of recommendation, that there

Gr

98

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

was a slight huskiness in his voice when he began,
but that soon passed off when his clear, modulated
tones enhanced the subject-matter on which he
was speaking. The closing devotional exercises
were short, generally two verses of a psalm or
paraphrase, and prayer in which a sentence that
had the ring of a liturgy occasionally occurred, as,
for example, ‘ Do Thou, our great Master, enrol
us all among Thy disciples ; and when we pass
through the dark valley of death, be our rod and
staff ; and above its clouds and beyond its shadows
do Thou, our Father, be our great reward.5”

In connection with this Sabbath-school there
was a class for young men, which he himself
taught in a separate room. The present writer
remembers attending one of these meetings in
1849, and nothing could exceed the intense
interest with which an intelligent, and, in the
case of many, a highly-educated class of young
men followed every point of the instruction he
was giving. It is right to add that the kindli-
ness of his nature was very signally displayed in
connection with these classes, as well as among
the students of the Normal School. It was a
wonder to many who knew what a busy life he

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 99

was leading, to see the hours which he spent in
private, week after week, with the pupil teachers
and assistants of the Sabbath-school, in carrying
on their instruction and advancing their studies.
And not less remarkable was the kindliness with
which it was all done. To this Mr. Dingwall
specially refers. “ His frank nature and delicate
sense of humour made him a most companionable
man at all times ; but in addition to this, there
was a graciousness in the way in which he met
and answered the enquiry of any learner or seeker
after knowledge. One instance may not be out
of place. A fellow-student who had got into the
mazes that ever attend the discussion of ‘ Fore-
knowledge, Will, and Fate, fixed fate free-will,’ as
Milton expresses it, called one evening to have
a ‘ go in,’ as he said, on this-to-me-undesirable
and cloudy subject. The Doctor had come in
to show me a fine old copy, date 1682 — I
have still the book — of Sir Thomas Browne’s
Religio Medici , which he had picked up that
afternoon in College Street. He saw that my
friend, * the knight of the rueful countenance,’
as he once or twice afterwards named him, had
mounted his hobby, and so he proposed to us to

100 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

try who could best translate the numerous Latin
quotations that abound in the volume. We were
nowhere in comparison with our visitor, with
whom the reading of the crabbed quotations was
as ready as the reading of the text. But my
friend would still drag in, on the slightest open-
ing, the ‘ absolute ’ and the ‘ conditioned ’ — the
latter a favourite phrase, and though the query
was not invented, ‘ Is life worth living ?’ still that
idea was the burden of our c conditioned 5 friend.
The Doctor listened with patience to the irrele-
vant episode, and rising, said, ‘ Don’t forget the
question, “ Who would lose, though full of pain,
this intellectual being ? ” I have been reading
an admirable piece of biography — Stanley s Life
of Arnold. I will bring it to school to-morrow
as I pass.’ Next day, on opening the volume, a
leaf was not only turned down at two passages,
but these were also written in two slips of paper,
— ‘ Amidst all the doubts and perplexities of our
own hearts, the deepest difficulties sitting hard
beside the most blessed truths, still we must seek
after the Lord with unabated truth, if so be that
we may find Him ; ’ and ‘ This state of mind is a
state of mental disease which, like many others,

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 101

is aggravated by talking about it. There are
thousands of Christians who see the difficulties
which he sees quite as clearly as he does, and
who long as eagerly as he can for that time when
they shall know even as they are known.’

“ On recalling the bright youthfulness of his
nature, I cannot forget that his sympathies with
suffering were even broader and deeper. The
active, many-sided, successful, professional, and
public man, amid his everyday thoughts and
habits of life, was the Christian physician.
Towards the close of my second session at the
University, I was laid aside for a fortnight by
inflammation of the eyes. Every morning during
that period, after prescribing and talking over the
news of the previous day, he went to the school
and gave the Bible lesson, except once when he
had been called to the country. Like many of
his noble profession he was very generous, and
never failed to take into account the means of
those who consulted him, as I was frequently
told by parents who had no stinted experience
of this. But to teachers and struggling students
his kindliness and thoughtfulness were peculiarly
marked. At one of our teachers’ meetings in

102 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Moray House, I recollect asking the rector, Mr.
Fulton, about a north-country student who was
absent, and was told that he was laid aside.

‘ I told him,’ continued Mr. F., ‘that he should
consult a doctor, but I don’t think he has done
so, as I believe he is afraid of incurring expense,
his means are so limited.’ Next day I men-
tioned this to Dr. Wood, who simply said, ‘ Poor
fellow ; do you know his address ? ’ I after-
wards heard from the young man himself that
for about a month he had visited him, and also
had given him a note to a druggist to supply
him with what he needed. The then worthy
matron of the Normal School called Dr. Wood
‘ Physician-in-ordinary ’ to her students. If
any of her charge was afflicted with home-sick-
ness or a more lingering malady, a note addressed
to the Doctor always found a ready response.
Other substantial help not unfrequently supple-
mented the entire foregoing of the fees.

“And so the years, with all their changes and
chances, slipped on in our little republic of
letters till the midsummer of 1857, when I left
to take the management of a large school in
the south of England. But the friendship with

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 103

my Directors, and notably with Dr. Wood, still
continued. I scarcely ever got a letter from
him, but there was mention of some of the
old pupils of the school ; their success in life,
and in the examinations to get an entrance into
public life and work, were duly reported. I fear
I have been too prolix in what I have written,
but I know I do not err in giving an extract
from a letter that came in an hour of sorrow,
which will explain itself. Over twelve years
previously, the Doctor had been at the birth
of my son, and for three years after, while my
house was in Comely Bank, had, as was his wont
with children, taken much notice of him. The
boy had been on a visit to his uncle in Fife,
when, after a short illness, he was called home.
Dr. Wood wrote — ‘ I was startled in taking up
the Scotsman , to see the sad loss you had met
with. Be assured you have the heartfelt sym-
pathies both of Mrs. Wood and of myself, even
before the letter came giving us the sad details.
At such a time when the heart peculiarly knows
its own bitterness, it is not even for a friend
to intermeddle further than by assuring you of
sympathy, and breathing the prayer that He

104 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

who has broken will heal, and that you and
Mrs. Dingwall may find Him a very present help
in the hour of your sad affliction. I felt as if I
had a peculiar property in that dear boy, and all
your anecdotes of him affect me inexpressibly.’”
How the genuine kindliness of his nature is
remembered still by former pupils of the school,
the following extract from a letter of one of their
number will be enough to show : — “ It affords me
a sad satisfaction to recall those boyish days
when Dr. Wood bulked as a large, nay, an
imposing figure in my little world. The active
interest he took in the management of the school,
and the zest with which he threw himself into
various plans, such as summer excursions and
indoor entertainments for the benefit of the
pupils, led us all to look up to him. Then,
as regards the pupil teachers’ staff, none of
us, I am sure, can ever forget the pains he
took in week-day evening lectures on the
interpretation of prophecy, and Sunday evening
lessons in New Testament exegesis — how vividly
I recall to this day the analysis of the Epistle
of James — to promote our intellectual improve-
ment. Individually, I had to thank him for

EDUCATIONAL AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 105

many special kindnesses, not the least being his
endeavours to foster a taste for reading by giving
me the run of his library. As showing how wise
a mentor he was in this respect, I need only
mention that among the books to which he
specially directed my attention were Froissart’s
Chronicles and Ly ell’s Geology. Even after my
connection with the school had terminated, the
good Doctor continued to show a kindly interest
in my welfare ; and though it did not fall in
with my plans to accept a situation he offered to
procure for me, I none the less gratefully
acknowledged the spontaneous generosity of the
proposal. Since I entered upon journalism,1 my
intercourse with Dr. Wood, owing largely to
absence from Edinburgh, for many years has
been but limited, but he remains for me a
notable memory, all the less likely to be forgotten
that his fine presence is most intimately asso-
ciated with the early time when life was yet
buoyant with hope and expectation.”

Dr. Wood was married June 15, 1842, to
Rebecca, daughter of the eldest son of the Hon.

1 Mr. M‘Farlane held a place on the staff of the Scotsman
newspaper, and was much esteemed. The above was written
in June 1884, not long before his death.

10G MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

George Massey of Caervillahowe, and other estates
in Tipperary and Limerick, parts of which are
still inherited by her brother’s children.1 Sheriff
Cleghorn, one of the most intimate friends of his
boyhood, on the occasion of his marriage, cele-
brated the event in a short poem, three verses
of which we give,, as showing the footing on
which he stood with his youthful associates : —

“ And thus, my friend, no careless mirth
The tidings to my breast impart,

That thou to share thy lot on earth
Hast found a pure and kindred heart ;

To me it seems as she were given

To cheer and aid thee on the path to heaven.

Then while my prayer will ever rise
For blessings on thy bride and thee,

And for all good that earth supplies,

My first and holiest wish shall be
That, springing here, your mutual love
May bloom for ever in the realms above.

Thus, when two living rills unite,

And onward sweep with mingled tide,

Till, winding far, they’re lost to sight ;

United still their currents glide,

Through varied scenes, united pour,

United reach the boundless ocean’s shore.”

1 The Massey family is one of the oldest in Ireland, and at
various times its members have been distinguished in the political
and ecclesiastical history of the country. In some cases their
estates were forfeited in the Protestant cause ; and in the persecu-
tion under Queen Mary, one of the family — Perotine Massey —
suffered martyrdom. — See Memoir of the Rev. Godfrey Massey,
Vicar of Bruff, p. 55. London, 1855.

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VII.

THE HYPODERMIC OR SUBCUTANEOUS SYRINGE.1

Among the results of Dr. Wood’s long and self-
denying life-work one achievement stands out
conspicuously, and upon it his future fame will
mainly rest — viz., the discovery of the hypodermic
method of administering drugs, whereby medi-
cines are introduced in solution under the skin,
and so pass directly into the circulation. To
understand the extreme value of this discovery,
it is necessary to bear in mind certain somewhat
technical points. When medicines are adminis-
tered in the ordinary manner by swallowing,
they reach the circulation by absorption through
the walls of the stomach and other portions of
the digestive tract. This absorption, although
it commences almost immediately, is not as a
rule very rapidly completed, and the effect con-

1 The greater part of this section is derived — as the reader will
perceive — from medical sources.

108 MEMOIR OP DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

sequently wants that precision which would be
attained were the whole dose introduced into
the circulation at once. A still greater disad-
vantage lies in the fact that different degrees of
fulness of the stomach and other organs influ-
ence very materially the action of remedies ;
and if to this is added the fact that altered con-
ditions of nerve-supply and of epithelium, as
well as changes in the liver, all influence absorp-
tion, it will be apparent that the administration
of remedies by the mouth is often very uncertain
in its effects even in the most skilful hands.
Such was the state of matters when Dr. Alex-
ander Wood approached the subject. It was

in the year 1853 that the question became
pressing to him. He had encountered in his
practice certain cases in which, while there was
great suffering, the use of opiates in the usual
manner was impossible, owing to some of the
conditions we have alluded to — a not at all un-
common state of affairs. In one instance, indeed,
things were critical, and the obtaining of sleep
was an absolute necessity were life to be pro-
longed. A certain line of reasoning had led
Dr. Wood to the belief that benefit was to

THE HYPODERMIC OR SUBCUTANEOUS SYRINGE. 109

be expected from the injection of morphia
under the skin. Taking as his model the sting
of the bee, he had constructed a small [glass]
syringe, to which was attached a fine perforated
needle point. This needle he passed under the
skin, and through it he injected a small dose of
morphia, which he could not give by the mouth.
In this manner all derangement of stomach and
liver was avoided, and immediate absorption of
the morphia into the blood-stream took place.
The strikingly beneficial result which followed
this bold experiment made Dr. Wood aware
that he now held in his hand a new method of
treatment, which promised far-reaching results.
Certainly in his most sanguine thoughts he could
little have imagined, as he stood at that bedside,
how in a few years every physician would be
armed with that syringe, and countless patients
would have seen cause to bless his skill.

At first this new hypodermic method was
employed exclusively for the administration of
morphia and preparations of opium, but it is
important to note that, from the outset, Dr.
Wood pointed to a far wider application. 'In
all probability,’ he said (1855), ‘what is true in

110 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

regard to narcotics, would be found to be equally
true in regard to other classes of remedies/ 1

Novelties in the medical profession are usually
received with caution. Some years passed before
the hypodermic method was widely adopted, but
it was not long before Dr. Wood received con-
vincing proofs of its utility in the hands of other
practitioners.

The late Dr. Benjamin Bell was the first to
speak out in its favour. In a very noteworthy
paper he showed that atropine as well as
morphia could be administered with success by
the new method ; and pointed out, what has
been since most fully confirmed, that the method
was peculiarly adapted for use in cases of
poisoning — morphia and atropine counteracting
each other.

Within a year we find Dr. Funcke of Frank-
fort writing to Dr. Wood to communicate his
success in using the syringe. In one of his
letters, after giving the details of some cases, he
adds — “ If I were a poet, I should say, ‘ Take

1 See Preface to paper on “ New Method of Treating Neuralgia
by Subcutaneous Injection,” separately published in 1855.

THE HYPODERMIC OR SUBCUTANEOUS SYRINGE. Ill

the history of these cases as a laurel branch for
the wreath you have deserved in the name of
suffering humanity.’”

Since 1853 the hypodermic method has come
into universal use. Hardly a year passes but
some new remedy is by its means applied to the
cure of disease, with a precision and a rapidity
otherwise impossible. It is no exaggeration to
say that Dr. Alexander Wood, by this discovery,
stands out as one of the prominent benefactors
of humanity.

As to the light in which it is regarded by the
medical profession abroad, one testimony may be
given. On hearing of his death, Dr. Meyer — a
well-known French physician — wrote from Paris
(May 1884) giving his estimate of the hypo-
dermic method, and closing with a warm-hearted
tribute to the memory of Dr. Wood.

“ Des milliers de mains ont ainsi manoeuvre
depuis 25 a 30 ans la petite seringue d’ injec-
tion, un nombre incalculable de malades dans
le monde entier ont eu a benir son action
bienfaisante, ignorant pour la plupart jusqu’au
nom de l’homme, a qui la science est redev-
able de cette methode d’une valeur inappreciable.

1 1 2 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

II a fallu peut-etre sa mort pour rappeler h beau-
coup d’entre nous son existence contemporaine
et son merite. Pour ma part j’avais pense
souvent combien je serais malheureux si je devais
etre medecin sans avoir a ma disposition la petite
seringue d’injections sous-cutanbes. Lorsqu’il y
a 3 ans le hasard de la vie professionnelle m’a
mis en rapport avec hauteur de la methode
hypodermique, j’ai exprimb cette pensee devant
lui, et je l’dcris aujourd’hui en memoire du
regrette Dr. Alexr. .Wood, certain d’etre seule-
ment l’eclio de tous ses confreres.”

It was obvious from the first that this
method of administering medicine had a great
future before it. Quietly and unobtrusively —
with no sounding of trunxpets — it was introduced
to the knowledge of the profession, and left to
make its way ; but if estimated by its results
in the relief of human suffering, it will bear
comparison with some of the most illustrious
of those discoveries which ‘ have conferred fame
and fortune’ on other members of the profes-
sion. The consciousness, however, of having
been the means of bestowing such a benefit
on his fellow-men was in itself a great reward.

THE HYPODERMIC OR SUBCUTANEOUS SYRINGE. 113

Many a grateful testimony, as years went on,
reached him from sufferers whom he never saw,
telling thankfully of the relief they had received.
A single instance may be given from the letter
of a stranger, which came to him not long before
his death : — “ I cannot help writing to thank
you that I am here. I am only an insignificant
unit in the countless number of sufferers whom
your remedy has helped through their saddest
hours, but my gratitude is very sincere, and I
want to tell you so, although I know that the
consciousness of having conferred so immortal a
blessing upon the world must be a sufficient
compensation to you of itself without any spoken
thanks.”

VIII.

CANDIDATE FOR THE PROFESSORSHIP.

It was not long after he made this discovery
that he met with the great disappointment of
his life. In 1855 Dr. Alison resigned, after a
distinguished career as Professor of the Practice
of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and
Dr. Wood came forward as a candidate for the
chair. By this time he had confessedly taken a
high place among the medical men of Edinburgh.
For fourteen years he had successfully conducted
large classes on the special subject to be taught
in the vacant chair, and proved himself one of
the most brilliant lecturers in the Extra-academi-
cal School. The discovery which he had made —
as we have seen in 1853 — had showed how well
fitted he was to advance both the science and
practice of his profession, as an original observer
and skilful inventor. All this seemed to point him
out as one whose claims it would be difficult to
resist. But in such contests, personal feelings

CANDIDATE FOR THE PROFESSORSHIP. 115

and mixed motives often come into play. The
other candidates were Professor Hughes Bennett
of the Edinburgh University, and Dr. Lay cock
of York.1 The patrons were the Town-Council,
and a keen canvass was carried on for the votes
of the Councillors. It has been said that the
claims of Dr. Wood and Professor Bennett were
so evenly balanced that the Town-Council, in
order to avoid the invidious task of deciding
between them, were led to prefer the stranger.
But there were deeper motives at work. A
medico-political struggle had been going on in the
College of Physicians, to which we shall refer
in the following section. In this Dr. Wood had
taken a decided part, advocating views which
were obnoxious to the professorial party. He had
written, as we have seen, against Homoeopathy
and Mesmerism, and the outspoken honesty
with which he expressed his views on both
subjects had given offence to various influential
parties. All this was against him. The Town-
Councillors did not profess to be able of their
own knowledge to decide on the merits of men

1 There were others, hut only three went to the vote.

116 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

of science or philosophy or literature. They
looked on themselves as a jury who were to
take evidence and give effect to what was the
general opinion of those qualified to judge. In
the present case, Dr. Bennett naturally found
large support among his brother professors, who
had a high opinion of his claims, and who
were not by any means prepared to favour
Dr. Wood. In such an election the practice
was to put up all the candidates, strike off
the one who had the fewest votes, and then
decide between the remaining two. In the
keen canvass, accordingly, which was carried on,
not only was every vote eagerly sought, but
second votes became important. On the evening
of the day before the election, Dr. Wood be-
lieved that he had good reason for expecting a
favourable result, he had obtained so many
promises not only of first but of second votes.
Information to this effect, however, had reached
his opponents, and on the morning of the day of
election — so it was reported at the time — a new
understanding was come to between some of
the supporters of the two remaining candidates.
When the Town Council met, Professor Bennett,

CANDIDATE FOR THE PROFESSORSHIP. 117

though proposed by the Lord Provost, and influ-
entially supported, was unexpectedly allowed on
the first vote to fall to the lowest place on the
list, and the result was that Dr. Laycock, on the
second vote, secured his election by a narrow
majority over Dr. Wood.

That this was a great disappointment all
Dr. Wood’s friends knew well. His first im-
pulse was to abandon medicine, and study for
the bar, where his sterling abilities and rare
powers as a speaker would have found a
congenial field. But such changes in middle
life are seldom advisable. The position he had
made for himself in the medical profession,
and the ties which he had formed to a large
circle of patients as their physician and their
friend made him pause. Ultimately he decided
to continue his medical career.

IX.

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL COUNCIL.* 1

At the time when Dr. Wood joined the Col-
lege of Physicians, it ‘held an important but
somewhat narrow position in the medical pro-
fession. Highly respectable and respected, con-
taining among its Fellows the most eminent
physicians of Edinburgh and the medical pro-
fessors of the University, full of good works and
charity, it had never comprised any large pro-
portion of those who practised medicine in
Edinburgh or in Scotland, who usually joined
the College of Surgeons.’

This was partly due to a restriction by which
all along its action had been hampered. While

1 The facts stated in this section, and, to some extent, the
language employed, are taken from the following authorities : —

1. A Sketch of the History of the Eoyal College of Physicians.
Edinburgh, 1867. 2. Notice of Dr. Wood, Edinburgh Medical

Journal , April 1884. 3. Speeches by Sir James Simpson and

Dr. Wood, reported in the Scotsman newspaper, of date 6th
February 1861.

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

119

empowered by Charter to grant licences to
practise medicine, the College was bound to
admit none but University graduates. For
long, the influence of the professors had been
paramount in its management, the Charter had
been rigorously carried out, and all University
men, to the exclusion of others, had been received
as licentiates without examination and without
ballot. Early in the present century, how-
ever, different ideas began to prevail, and in
August 1837 a proposal was made that candi-
dates for licence should no longer be required
to possess medical degrees from the Universities.
For two years this question was debated in
committee and at the meetings of the College,
but ultimately the proposed change was nega-
tived in consequence partly of alleged legal
difficulties, and still more because of the pre-
ponderance in the College of the professorial
element.

Still, as time went on, changes continued to take
place. A considerable number of the teachers
of the Extra- academical School of Edinburgh
became Fellows, and gradually two parties came
to be opposed to one another — the professorial

120 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

and what has been called the College party —
the former desiring to admit none but University
graduates, the latter wishing to throw open the
doors of the College to all duly-qualified candi-
dates.

It was while this movement was in progress
that Dr. Wood entered the College — November
1840 — as one of the Fellows, and from the first
he took an active part in its affairs.

In the meantime the general question of
medical reform w^as engaging a large share of
public attention, and was much discussed in
Parliament. The profession had come to be ‘ in
a state of chaos’ in regard to its methods of
obtaining licence. There were nineteen dis-
tinct sources of medical honours in the kingdom,
nineteen modes of obtaining them, and fourteen
varieties of professional rights and immunities
attached to them, and the great risk was that
the different licensing bodies should underbid
each other in offering easier terms of admission.

When Parliament set itself to reform this
state of matters, it was found to be no easy task.
A Committee of the House of Commons took
evidence on the subject. Private bills were

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

121

brought forward — five of them in three years —
and laid aside. Sir James Graham took the
matter in hand in a Government measure, with
strong support, and was defeated. At last, in
1858, an Act was passed, in which Parliament
virtually handed the whole details over to the
doctors to settle among themselves, subject to
certain general regulations. A Medical Council
was appointed for the whole kingdom constituted
in such a way as fairly to represent the pro-
fession, and to them the various questions were
remitted.

It was this measure which brought matters to
a crisis in the Edinburgh College of Physicians.
Before applying for a new Charter, which had
become necessary after the passing of the Act,
they had to decide whether the old restriction
was to be retained. The discussions to which
this led were long and keen — the professors and
their friends contending with great ability for the
status quo. On the other side Dr. Wood took a
prominent part in advocating a different policy.
He had the support of Sir James Simpson, who
stood alone among the professors, and who has
said, in referring to the circumstances —

122 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ Since the College was instituted it has had
no small number of fights for its privileges at
different times, but the most severe of all its
fights has come off within the last few years,
and we must congratulate Dr. Wood as being
our most successful general in that great con-
flict, and as having led the College on to
victory.’

It was a hard-won victory, however. On the
5th of April 1859 a resolution was passed, by a
majority of one , to have the restriction removed,
and to receive well-qualified candidates who had
no previous University degree.

Soon after this decisive step had been taken,
there was an important benefit which Dr. Wood
was the means of conferring on the College. The
diploma of Licentiate was burdened by a heavy
stamp-duty of £15 payable to Government, and
this had been felt as a great grievance. It had,
indeed, practically been found to be all but
prohibitory. ‘Again and again,’ Dr. Wood
states, ‘ the three Colleges of Physicians me-
morialised and petitioned against it, but without
effect. I saw that the abolition of this tax was
essential to the existence of our new order. I

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

123

went to London and pled in person with the
Secretary of the Treasury, and received a
promise — afterwards duly fulfilled — that the
obnoxious tax should be removed. This ob-
stacle, therefore, was taken out of the way.’
There was still another service which he was
able to render about the same time. Scottish
licences were of no avail in England for the
general practice of medicine. By no amount of
education received in Scotland and by no
examination, however strict, if conducted north
of the Border, could a man be fitted for
the general practice of his profession in Eng-
land ; so that, in as far as medicine was
concerned, the Union was a dead letter. The
Act of 1858 was intended to remedy this, but
there was still a question as to the English
Poor Law Boards, ‘ who were puzzled,’ says
Dr. Wood, c with the change of the law, and
were uncertain how far they were authorised
to regard our licence as a legal qualification for
practice. I started again for London, pled our
cause before the board, and ultimately, though
after some delay, I was successful. The licence
of the College was duly recognised as sufficient.’

124 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

A still wider sphere of usefulness, however,
was now opened up, in which he found a con-
genial field for all his talents. The General
Medical Council had so much power entrusted
to it as to constitute it a kind of medical par-
liament. It consisted partly of members ap-
pointed by Government, and partly of repre-
sentatives chosen by the Universities and the
medical and surgical Colleges throughout the
kingdom. To Dr. Wood was assigned the
honour of representing the College to which he
belonged; and, coming in contact with the ablest
members of the profession in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, he had to take his part with others
in upholding the credit of the Edinburgh School.

And it was not long till all his powers were
called into requisition. At the very first meet-
ing a resolution was proposed involving a vote of
censure on the Edinburgh College of Physicians.
They had passed a regulation requiring all can-
didates, other than University graduates, to
submit to a stringent examination. For the
first year, however, there was to be an exception
in favour of a class of medical men in various
parts of the country, who were advanced in life,

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

125

and had long stood high in the profession.
These might be admitted as licentiates without
examination, on producing satisfactory evidence
of good social and professional standing, and
provided that they already held the licence of
some other recognised medical board of examina-
tion. In giving them what was called this
“ year of grace,” the College was only following,
in so far, the example of the London College of
Physicians.

The boon thus offered, however, was sought
for with an eagerness which ‘ startled even those
wdio had proposed it.’ ‘ The College had ex-
pected that it would be taken advantage of
entirely or mainly by Scottish practitioners, many
of whom were practising on a single qualification
obtained from the Edinburgh College of Surgeons
or the Glasgow Faculty. Instead of this, how-
ever, a majority of the applicants were English
practitioners, a large proportion of whom held
the diplomas of the College of Surgeons and the
Apothecaries’ Company.’ The honour of being
licentiate of the Edinburgh College of Physicians
was so coveted, and applied for on so large a
scale, that professional jealousy was roused in

126 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

other quarters, and the College was subjected
to much misrepresentation, as if it sold its
honours, admitting licentiates simply on the
payment of a sum of money.

Acting on this mistaken idea, Sir Dominick
Corrigan, from Dublin, moved in the Medical
Council, on the 8th of August 1859, that those
licentiates thus received should be refused a
place on the Register — a resolution which, if it
had been carried, would have been a serious
injury to them, and would have reflected heavily
on the College. Dr. Wood at once strenuously
resisted the proposal, showed the real meaning of
what had been done ; and, after hearing his
explanations, the Council adopted an amendment,
on his suggestion, to the effect that, without going
back on the past, for the future every candidate
for licence should be subjected to examination.
No one, as we shall see, was more ready to recog-
nise the conspicuous ability with which Dr.
Wood on that occasion defended his College than
Sir Dominick Corrigan himself.

In the meantime, at Edinburgh, there was a
strong feeling that in some way the College
of Physicians should mark their sense of the

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

127

sreat services which Dr. Wood had rendered.

o

Accordingly, at the quarterly meeting on the 7th
of February 1860, a committee was appointed,
without one dissentient voice, to consider what
form such a recognition should take. In the
following May a report was given in, and unani-
mously adopted, bearing that ‘the crisis which
has so largely called forth the talents of our
President has no parallel in the history of our
body, so that there is nothing in our records
bearing the remotest resemblance to the step of
elevation in position which his exertions have
secured for the College in time to come. An
occasion so pre-eminently extraordinary vindi-
cates to itself a memorial out of the common
course. The unanimous recommendation of the
committee is, that the College should present their
President with his picture, painted by an artist
of high eminence ; and that, on the condition of
adequate eminence, the choice of the artist should
be with Dr. Wood himself.’

This was accordingly done. A full-length
portrait was painted by Sir J. Watson Gordon,
President of the Royal Scottish Academy, and
was formally presented to Dr. Wood at a meeting

128 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

of the College on the 5th of February 1861.
On the same clay he received the rare honour
of being elected a third time President of the
College ; and in the evening he was entertained
at a public dinner by the Fellows, presided over
by Sir James Simpson. The speeches delivered
on that occasion, and the whole proceedings
showed, in a striking way, the warmth and
cordiality with which Dr. Wood’s abilities and
services were acknowledged by his professional
brethren.

Among the many letters received there is
one, so honourable, both to the writer and the
receiver, that it must not be omitted, coming
as it did from his leading opponent in the
Medical Council : —

“Dublin, February 14 th, 1861.

“ My dear Brother President, — I have
received and read with great pleasure the paper
containing a report of the dinner and portrait
presented to you by the College of Physicians,
Edinburgh. No one ever deserved the compli-
ment better ; and no one, I think I may venture
to say, had more opportunity than I had of

MEDICAL COUNCIL.

129

knowing liow well yon merited it, for you worked
for your College and for the improvement of
medical education with untiring zeal and energy.
I cannot forget that when I brought forward a
motion not to register licences granted without
examination, my resolution was levelled at the
College, and you will not be angry with me for
still thinking that your College, in the case in
question, deserved a whipping. On that occa-
sion it was your defence — one of the best pieces
of argumentative reasoning and oratory I ever
listened to — that saved your College as much as
the perfect reliance placed on your word, that the
system should cease." ... I think I am
coming round to a view of yours that our meet-
ings should be opened to the press. We are not
greater men than the members of the Houses of
Lords and Commons, and our reasons should be
open to be weighed as well as our conclusions.”

In the Council, however, Dr. Wood was no
mere debater. During those earlier years of
its history there was much hard work to be
done, and into that work he threw himself
with untiring energy. The services which he

rendered, however, and the place which he took

i

130 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

among liis brethren, will be best understood from
the following statement by one who, above all
others, is most entitled to speak — the Secretary,
Dr. Quain.

“ Dr. Alexander Wood was a member of the
Medical Council from its first meeting till No-
vember 1873. At its very first meeting he was
invited to undertake the duties of Honorary
Secretary until a permanent Secretary and
Registrar was appointed in the person of Dr.
Francis Hawkins. The zeal with which he per-
formed the duties of Member of Council, and the
confidence reposed in him by his colleagues, are
evidenced by the fact that his name appears as
Chairman of no fewer than thirteen Committee's of
the Council during his tenure of office ; and that
he was also a working member of eleven other
Committees on business connected with the
Council.

“ The subjects which particularly occupied his
attention were those which had reference to pre-
liminary education, the recognised progress of
which, and the fact that a preliminary examina-
tion is now required by all licensing bodies, are
very much due to his advocacy. He also felt a

MEDICAL COUNCIL.

131

deep interest in the subject of the visitation of
examinations, and contributed to forming the
regulations under which these visitations have
since been conducted.

“Dr. Alexander Wood was most regular and
unfailing in his attendance at the meetings of the
Council. He advocated the views he entertained
with wondrous force and clearness, and with an
evident sincerity of purpose which carried con-
viction to the minds of his hearers. He was
intimately associated with his colleague, Dr.
Andrew Wood, with whom he rarely differed on
the subject under discussion. His great rival
was the late Sir Dominick Corrigan, with whom
he had many passages-at-arms, but always after
a friendly fashion, which left no feeling of
bitterness behind it. The humorous and spark-
ling jokes and witticisms of the Irish Baronet
were met by the cool, calm, and judicious reason-
ings of the representative of the Edinburgh
College of Physicians, who was generally regarded
as coming off victorious in the fight.

“When Dr. Alexander Wood ceased to be a
member of the Council, his Fellows felt that they
had lost a most valuable member, and a greatly

132 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

esteemed friend. I could never,” Dr. Quain
adds, “ myself say all I would desire to say of
his goodness of heart and greatness of mind.”
Thus, for the fourteen years during which he
represented in the Council the Edinburgh College
of Physicians, he gave much time and thought to
the duties of his position, and these statements
abundantly show the high position which he held
among the leading medical men of his time.

X.

SANITARY REFORM.

While thus taking his full share of professional
and other work, there was one special subject —
that of Sanitary Reform — to which all along he
gave much time and care. The first circumstance
which he mentions as having given an impulse
to this question in Edinburgh was the appear-
ance of the cholera in 1832. ‘It was a most
impressive time. The town was divided into
districts, of which all the chief medical men
took one, with younger men under them. At
that time it was believed to be highly con-
tagious, and my father took all his meals apart,
and would scarcely suffer us to approach him.’
‘ Early in the epidemic a patient of his, a lady,
living in a handsome country house near Edin-
burgh, died of it, and all the beautiful furniture
of her bedroom was carried out, and every stick
of it burned. Every day the lane, then leading
from St. Bernard’s Crescent to Ann Street, was

134 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

lined with the beds of poor sufferers from Stock-
bridge district, in the act of being consumed.
The investigations into the unwholesome dens
in which so many of the inhabitants of Edin-
burgh lived, was of lasting benefit, giving a
great impulse to Sanitary Reform, only then
beginning to be talked of as a science.’

Early in his own professional career, long
before the subject had become fashionable, he
had been associated with Dr. Alison in drawing
up two reports regarding it (1848-49) for the
Royal College of Physicians. The whole question
fairly took possession of his mind. 'Having
been indoctrinated,’ he says, ‘ in sanitary science
by Dr. Alison, I became a zealous sanitary re-
former;’ and, as his manner was, he went ener-
getically to work.

First he wrote in the Witness newspaper, then
edited by the distinguished Hugh Miller, a series
of powerful letters, fitted to arouse public atten-
tion. On reading them John Hunter, W.S., of
Craigcrook, wrote him to say that some of the
passages had drawn tears from his eyes, and
Professor Simpson urged him to collect and
issue them in the form of a pamphlet. One or

SANITARY REFORM.

135

two extracts may serve to show in what form
the subject was treated.

On June 27, 1849, he wrote: — ‘Let us ask
our readers to accompany us on some calm
summer evening to any one of these eminences
by which our naturally beautiful city is sur-
rounded. What means that murky cloud which
hangs like a funereal pall alike over palace and
hovel, and contrasts so strikingly with the fleecy
drapery which half conceals the setting sun ?
That is the air we are wont to breathe. In that
the inhabitants live and move. The artisan,
exhausted with his daily toil, sits at his door
and inhales its heavy breath. The mother opens
her casement and admits it to purify the little
chamber where her infant sleeps. Can the
chemist analyse the heterogeneous compound ?
Can he tell what chimney has belched forth the
one ingredifent ; or from what reeking sewer that
other has arisen ; or whence come the gases which
are combined in a third ? No ! But he can lead
you back to the city which seemed to you so
beautiful when lighted up by the tints of the
declining sun. He can show you haunts where
even the savage Laplander would sicken and die.

13G MEMOIR OF DIt. ALEXANDER WOOD.

He can show you the sewage stagnating in
courts, closes, and alleys, saturating the walls,
flowing into the very dwellings,1 and poisoning
the air with noxious exhalations. He can hid
you mark how the gigantic houses, which hem in
these depots, intercept alike the play of the
breeze which might dissipate their concentrated
venom, and the light of the sun by which their
contents might be decomposed. He can take
you into these dwellings and prove to you by
an effective demonstration that they are the
hotbeds alike of physical and moral pestilence.
He can show you, by one cursory inspection,
whence arises that murky vapour, which, like
the fabled upas, sheds its destructive influence
on all around, and which seems to be ascending
to heaven only to cry for vengeance on the
stupidity or culpable neglect of those who re-
fuse to employ those means which might prove
effective in dissipating its baneful gloom.’

On the following week — July 4 — he returns

1 This applies to the state of matters in 1849. Things are
different now — thanks to our sanitary reformers, among the
earliest and most energetic of whom Dr. Alexander Wood stands-
conspicuous.

SANITARY REFORM.

137

to the subject. The statistics, showing the
number of what are called preventable deaths,
are carefully given, and then he proceeds : —

‘ When the assassin with noiseless steps enters
the peaceful family circle, and murders one or
two of its members, the nation is roused in
horror, and an universal cry is raised. But
here is a murderous Moloch at whose shrine
fifty-one thousand of our fellow-creatures are
annually sacrificed, yet we heed him not. This
is no pestilence walking in darkness, but a de-
struction wasting at noonday. We see and can
trace its steps — we can tell with sad precision
its most likely victims, we can follow its mourn-
ful march, and groan under the oppressive load
of misery and wretchedness which it casts on
us ; but we can do more — we can use means to
stay its progress, and set bounds to its devour-
ing career, but this we neglect. We see our
fellow-creatures perishing, but refuse to lay it
to heart.

‘We have spoken of unnecessary deaths, to
many of these victims a happy release. Who
will venture to raise the curtain that hides from
our view all the misery and wretchedness with

138 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

which such death is often associated? There
are racking pains of body with none to alleviate,
and agonies of mind with none to soothe ; there
are weeks of wasting sickness, slowly dissipating
the little all ; there are the hours of torturing
anxiety in contemplating the future with widow
and orphans left dependent on the world ; — above
all, there are the searchings of an immortal soul
about to enter an unknown eternity.

‘ “ Yet half I hear the parting sigh,

It is a dread, an awful thing to die.”

Say ye who have stood beside one such death-
bed, and who for weeks and months have been
haunted by the dismal recollection, can ye
attempt to realise that scene multiplied by
thousands ; or can the fact come home to your
minds and consciences that year by year, amidst
our boasted civilisation, fifty-one thousand such
scenes are needlessly enacted while we stand
aloof in unpitying apathy.

‘ “ Say ye, oppressed by some fantastic woes,

Some jarring nerve that baffles your repose,

How would you bear in real pain to lie,

Despised, neglected, left alone to die ?

How would you bear to draw your latest breath
Where all that’s wretched paves the way to death ? ” ’

SANITARY REFORM.

139

But besides writing sucli appeals and exposi-
tions, Dr. Wood felt that he must take action.
The sanitary arrangements of the city were
managed at that time by a body of Commis-
sioners of Police, elected by the different wards
of the city. The position of Police Commissioner
was not certainly one to be coveted by a gentle-
man of Dr. Wood’s standing — but there was no
help — he must get his hand into the work. He
carried his election for one of the Wards, and
soon afterwards was appointed chairman of a
sanitary committee nominated by the Com-
missioners. And it was not long till he had
an opportunity of aiding in the advancement
of the cause which he had at heart. ‘ I was
sent to London to promote a Public Health Bill,
introduced by Lord Advocate Rutherfurd. My
colleagues were John Thomson Gordon the
Sheriff, Mr. David Smith, W.S., and John
Sinclair the Town -Clerk. Mr. Adam Black,

as representing the Town-Council, accompanied
us. The training I then first got in parliamen-
tary work from John Sinclair was of great use
to me when subsequently I had to do with the
Medical Bill of 1858, the Lunacy and Vaccina-

140 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

tion Bills, and the Bill for improving the Water
of Leith,’ etc.

This was congenial work, but sometimes as
Police Commissioner he had other duties to
perform which probably he had not reckoned
on. In 1848 the French had driven Louis
Philippe from the throne. ‘This gave an im-
petus to Chartism in the country. Efforts were
made to stimulate the people to insurrection ;
seditious meetings were held all over the land,
and Edinburgh was not free from the visits of
these treason-mongers.’

‘ Special constables were sworn in, divided
into districts, and placed generally under the
command of the Police Commissioners, of whom
I was then one. The division with which I was
connected met in a large room under St.
Stephen’s Church, under the command of the
late Mr. Samuel Hay of the Union Bank and
myself, the Commissioners for two Wards whose
specials were joined together. One day our
Sheriff, Mr. J. T. Gordon, called, and after
some compliments to the loyalty and courage
of our division, told me a seditious meeting
was to be held in Bruntsfield Links that night,

SANITARY REFORM.

141

that the authorities had some idea of arresting
the speakers red-handed — would I answer for
my division having firmness enough to surround
the platform and repress the mob while Sheriff-
officers effected the arrest ? I expressed my
confidence that my division would efficiently
act, and do whatever duty they might be
called on to perform. I was then ordered to
make a special muster and wait orders. On
meeting my division I told them what was con-
templated, and great was the delight of the
younger and more fiery spirits at the prospect
of something really to be done.’

c The time sped on, but it was not until eight
o’clock that a cab — the horse all flecked with
foam from furious driving — dashed down to the
door of our quarters. A pencil note was handed
in — “ Occupy the centre walk of the Meadows
without delay, and await further orders.” Im-
mediately our men were formed into column four
deep, and marched for the Meadows. The Mound
was occupied by a mob who received us with
volleys of stones. We carried it, however, by a
charge at the double, and established our position
soon after in the centre walk of the Meadows.

142 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Here however we were exposed to a flank fire on
either side from the enemy. The orders were
on no account to break rank, but ever and anon
some fiery spirit struck violently by a stone
would leap the fence and start in pursuit of his
assailant. I am bound to say that on these
occasions the mob generally fled, leaving the
issue to be decided by single combat. After an
hour or two’s detention, we received orders to
disband, all idea of making arrests on the spot
having been abandoned.’

Another of these strange experiences he de-
scribes. ‘ Presiding over the deliberations of the
Committee (sanitary) one day, I was suddenly
interrupted by Mr. Moxey, the then Superinten-
dent of Police, who wished to see me on a matter
of importance. Getting Mr. David Smith, the
late Manager of the North British Insurance
Company, to take the chair, I went to Moxey’s
private room. In 1849 a terrible murder had
been committed in the east of London. A Mr.
O’Connor, who had a considerable amount of
property invested in shares of various companies,
had been invited to dine with a man, Mr. Brook
Manning and his wife. He had never been seen

SANITARY REFORM.

143

alive again, but Mrs. Manning had come to his
lodgings with his keys, and, as she said, by his
orders, and carried off the scrip. His body was
subsequently found, with a pistol shot behind
the ear, buried under the hearthstone of Man-
ning’s kitchen, and he and his wife had fled.
Government had offered a considerable reward
for the apprehension of either, and published a
description of the missing share certificates.
This list and a lot of certificates Mr. Moxey
now produced, and saying he knew nothing
about these things, asked my assistance in ex-
amining them. One by one we checked them
off. Yes, they were all there. “How did you
get them ? ” I asked. “ They were brought by a
lady last night to Hughson & Dobson’s, the Stock-
brokers in the Royal Exchange.” “ Who is the
lady ? ” “ She gave her name as Mrs. Black, and
she is lodging in Haddington Place.” Within an
hour Mrs. Manning was in Moxey’s room in my
presence. She had been reading aloud an account
of the murder from the Times newspaper to her
landlady when apprehended. • She was removed
to London and tried along with her husband
— who was apprehended in the Isle of Wight —

144 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

at the Old Bailey. They were both executed at
ITorsemonger Lane Jail, in November 1849.’
Such were the incidents to which his position
as Police Commissioner exposed him ; but the
one object which he kept steadily in view was
Sanitary Reform, and the services which he
rendered to the cause were neither few nor un-
important. Not only did he take part in pro-
moting the Public Health Bill of Lord Advocate
Rutherfurd, he states that he had ‘ a consider-
able share in framing the sanitary clauses of the
present Edinburgh Police Bill, which would have
been more complete and stringent had not our
original proposals been rejected in London. I
had also the satisfaction of setting in motion the
machinery for effecting the drainage of the city,
though that important operation was commenced
in a very different way from that which I recom-
mended and desired to see adopted.’

All the influence which he possessed was thus
put forth ; and though there were difficulties in
the way of doing what he wished, yet he had
the satisfaction of knowing that step by step the
sanitary condition of the city was being steadily
improved.

XI.

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION
OF THE POOR.

Connected with this question of Sanitary Re-
form, there was another philanthropic movement
which soon called forth all Dr. Wood’s energies.
A society was formed in Edinburgh for improv-
ing the condition of the poor. What roused
public feeling on this subject was an event that
occurred on the 14th November 1861. Dur-
ing the night a house suddenly fell in the
High Street, and the whole community were
startled by the disastrous results of the accident,
which were thus described by Dr. Wood : ‘ Five-
and-thirty human beings, living, moving, work-
ing among us, lie down at night under the shelter
of their own roof, and in security of their own
beds, their eyes closed in sleep — a sleep which
to many of them will know no awakening till
that trumpet sounds, when the graves shall give

up their dead. The fact is awful and appalling.

K

14G MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

* The tall skeleton-looking walls still standing
in grim desolation, displaying, as if in mockery,
trifling articles of household gear saved from
the universal destruction, the torchlight searching
for the dead and the dying, the covered biers
conveying the dead to their temporary resting-
place, and the hundred-and-one concomitant at-
tendants of such an event — all lend a dramatic
interest to it, and throw a gloom of horror over
the neighbourhood.

‘ Such startling incidents are surely designed
by Providence to arouse and warn us ; and at this
moment (1862) they seem to a certain extent to
have done so, for many are now concerning them-
selves regarding the temporal well-being of then-
poorer brethren who lately bestowed not a
thought upon them.’

Accordingly, a general feeling pervaded the
whole community that some decisive step must
be taken.

A great public meeting was held on the 25th
February 1862. A deputation, including some
of the leading citizens (among whom Dr. Wood
was prominent), was sent to apply to the Town-
Council, and urge the appointment of an officer

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING CONDITION OF POOR 147

of health. This was agreed to. Dr. Littlejohn
received the appointment, and in 1865 his report
brought out the deplorable state of matters ex-
isting in the poorer portions of the city.

It so happened that soon afterwards an Ameri-
can gentleman, A. C. Miner, Esq., came to re-
side for a time in Edinburgh, and finding what
was going; on, he took means to make known
a plan for dealing with the poor, which had been
tried with success in New York and elsewhere.
Several drawing-room meetings were held,
lectures were delivered, a valuable pamphlet was
published, giving full information, and a general
feeling of interest was awakened. The Lord
Provost, W. Chambers, invited a large number
of the leading citizens to meet for consultation in
the Council Chambers on the 15th of April 1867.
The result was, that a Committee of seventy
ministers and laymen was appointed, who met
on the 18th April, and, as a preliminary step,
named a Sub-committee to inquire into the ex-
isting misery and destitution, and consider what
remedies could be suggested. Of this Sub-com-
mittee Dr. Wood was appointed chairman. After
careful investigation, an elaborate report written

148 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

by him was published. From this it appeared
that, according to a careful estimate, 1344 pre-
ventable deaths occurred annually in Edinburgh,
involving an untold amount of widowhood and
orphanhood. In examining the causes of this
excessive death-rate, it was found that 66,000 indi-
viduals1— considerably more than one-third of our
whole population — were actually living in houses
consisting of but a single room, and that 1530
of these single-room houses had from six to fifteen
persons residing in them. The results were in
every point of view deplorable. ‘ The overcrowd-
ing in houses, especially when inhabited by the
poor, is recognised by all competent authorities
to be one main cause of excessive mortality. It
tends to break down the healthiest constitution,
and renders it liable to take on disease from com-
paratively slight causes. What the effect must
be where diseases, and especially those which are
infectious, break out, imagination can scarcely
picture. The healthy, the diseased, the dying
and the dead, crowded together in a single small
room, present a condition of misery of constant

1 “ Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes, &c.,” p. 4.
Other quotations are given in the following paragraphs.

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING CONDITION OF POOR 149

occurrence, which only those who have witnessed
it can possibly realise. What must be the effect
on a comparatively healthy neighbourhood of
working men and women going out from such
dens with their persons and clothes loaded with
all kinds of infectious miasmata ? But that the
moral disease engendered is even more awful than
the physical will readily be supposed. How can
morality and decency be preserved among a popu-
lation so circumstanced ? Every notion of pro-
priety revolts at the bare idea of numbers of men,
women, and children thus herding together.
From such abodes you issue half-suffocated, and
cease to wonder — when you analyse your feelings,
and when you consider what an amount of physi-
cal depression the habitual dwelling in such an
atmosphere must engender — that the gin-palace,
or, worse still, the hard-ale shop close by, is
crowded to the door with eager votaries.
“Would I myself be better in similar circum-
stances ? ” is the question each may well ask
himself; and as we know the influences of the
surrounding atmosphere on the character of us
all, can we wonder if in such localities the moral
as well as the physical life languishes, and ignor-

150 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

ance, indecency, and immorality prevail ? Your
Committee may well ask, how long are these
abominations to be tolerated in our midst ? How
long is this accursed and bloody sacrifice to be
offered at the shrine of Moloch ? Even selfish-
ness must rouse us to efforts on their behalf.
While a population in such a state of degradation
is a disgrace to any civilised community, it is
also a prolific source of danger and expense. The
unkempt, untaught children, who to-day swarm
about our streets, will become in a very few
years the tramps and beggars and criminals at
our doors. In those unwholesome dwellings are
generated epidemics which ever and anon break
forth, carrying death and desolation in their
course. Chiefly for such a population are jails,
prisons, and police offices provided, and all the
machinery of our criminal law put in operation.
They necessitate the erection of hospitals and
poorhouses, and tax the resources of our dispen-
saries to minister to their wants while stricken
down by disease.

And there are other evils for which society
may have to pay the penalty in setting class
against class. ‘ Wide as is the gulf that is placed

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING CONDITION OF POOR 151

between your palatial abodes and the dreary dens
we have described, the dwellers in the latter can
see across it. They cannot but contrast the com-
forts and blessings with which you are surrounded
with their poisonous and sad environments. They
cannot but see how small is the sympathy felt
for their sorrows ; how seldom the hand is
stretched out to raise or help them ; how often
those above them in the social scale trade on
their sufferings, and make capital out of their
helplessness. Are there no evil passions engen-
dered by such reflections, no bitter envyings, no

♦

sullen despair ? Have the lessons of Providence
and the teachings of history made so little im-
pression on us, that we have yet to learn that
we cannot leave our brethren to sink unheeded
in the sea of profligacy, suffering, or crime, with-
out running the risk either of being dragged
down by them into the vortex, or of being swept
away by the waves of lawlessness which their
abject condition ever and anon causes to rise ? ’
In such terms did Dr. Wood plead the cause,
showing the necessity of some decisive effort
being made. The Committee in whose name
the report was issued resolved to go forward.

1 52 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Under their auspices a public meeting was held
on the 30th March 1868, at which an Association
for Improving the Condition of the Poor was
formally constituted, and Dr. Wood was appointed
Chairman of the Acting Committee. In setting
about their work it was found that there was no
lack of benevolent institutions already at work
in the city, and no lack of money expended.
Thirteen different organisations existed, and were
in active operation ; and, including the poor
rates, a sum of no less than £112,000 was laid
out on the poor ; but much that was most pain-
ful still prevailed, enough to show that the root
of the evil had not been reached, and it was felt
that one more effort ought to be made on some-
what different lines.

The object of the Association was to bring
about a union of the whole city, without refer-
ence to sect or party, for the purpose of
thoroughly and systematically relieving the
wants of the poor, and to do this, not by provid-
ing for pauperism, but by preventing it. Work
was to be found for all who were willing to work ;
and the deserving poor were to be aided in tem-
porary difficulties, so as to prevent them from

ASSOCIATION FOE, IMPEOVING CONDITION OF POOE 153

ever becoming paupers. The agency chiefly
relied on was a large staff of visitors — ladies and
gentlemen — who, in answer to an appeal of the
Society, volunteered their services to the number
of no fewer than 1127. Those parts of Edin-
burgh inhabited by the poorer classes were
divided into twenty-eight districts, and twenty-
eight local committees of these visitors were
formed, each having charge of one of those dis-
tricts. A code of regulations was drawn up for
their guidance in dealing with the cases ; and
the committees were to meet once a fortnight for
consultation and reporting their proceedings. It
was no slight undertaking to organise and carry
on the operations of such a Society.

Many zealous and able coadjutors had come
forward to aid in the work ; but in all such cases
some one is required to take the lead, and by
common consent this was the position assigned
to Dr. Wood. With most self-denying labour,
amid many other occupations, he threw himself
into the work. All his business talents were
brought to bear. No time nor trouble was
spared. He wrote the reports ; he issued the
appeals for funds ; with his gift of ready elo-

154 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

quence lie took a large share in the public meet-
ings ; and what was far more laborious and im-
portant, he presided at the Committee meetings,
and saw that the arrangements were kept in
working order. Year after year he devoted him-
self to this work, in the fond hope that a way
had at last been found for helping the poor to
help themselves, and giving relief in such a way
as to preserve the honest and industrious from
sinking in the struggle of life. It was a noble
work, to which he gave himself heart and soul.1

For eight years this went on, till, in 1876, after
the Association had been fully established, his
failing health made it necessary to give up the
chairmanship. The proposal to retire met with
the most strenuous opposition. The Committee
unanimously urged him to continue at his post,
and when that could not be, their sense of the
value of his services was expressed in no common
terms.

“Dr. Wood having declined to withdraw his
resignation, the Committee have accepted it with

1 And it would — as he believed — have been more successful if
there bad been more cordial co-operation on the part of other
associations.

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING CONDITION OF POOR 155

great reluctance, and in doing so desire to record
their appreciation of Dr. Wood’s services as
Chairman since the formation of the Association,
which demanded and received so large a portion
of his valuable time ; of his untiring energy and
devotion in guiding their counsels and in carry-
ing out their decisions ; of his administrative
abilities ; and of his great courtesy, of all which
no adequate idea can be formed save by those
who are intimately connected with the history
and operations of the Association since it was
formed.”

In transmitting this Minute, the Clerk adds a
personal note : — “ I need hardly assure you that
no one can regret your retirement more than I
do ; and I fondly hope that the pleasant inter-
course we have had will not altogether cease,
though you are no longer the head of the
Association. The years we have passed together
have been to me most pleasant ; and the duties
and labours of my office were greatly lightened
by your ever considerate kindness.”

Three years before he had received from the
Committee the present of a beautiful Vase
bearing the following inscription : — -

15G MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

“ PTIESENTET) TO

ALEXANDER WOOD, M.D., F.R.S.E., etc.,

BY

of the ICocstl anti feting (Committees of the (gbmbrtrgh
^Issoeiation for (Smprobittg the (Conbition of the Poor,

In token of their appreciation of his valuable services as
Chairman

And his unwearied efforts to promote the success of the Institution.

January 1873.”

Tributes such as these could not but be highly
appreciated, coming as they did from so large a
number of the leading citizens and most ardent
philanthropists of Edinburgh.

There was another expression of feeling,
however, from a very different quarter, which
must have been not a little gratifying. Hav-
ing some business connection with Prestonpans,
he had been led to take part in a movement
for improving the sanitary condition of the place
by introducing water, etc. In such a com-
munity, however, it is always a delicate matter
to make proposals of this kind. The people
rose in keen opposition. The project had to be
abandoned, and Dr. Wood, in his zeal for
sanitary improvement, found that he had for

ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING CONDITION OF POOR 157

the time brought on himself no small share of
popular ill-will.

It so happened that a considerable time after-
wards he required some nets for protecting his
garden fruit at Brae Lodge, and the agent whom
he employed had obtained what he wanted from
Prestonpans. No account, however, was ren-
dered. Time went on, and the agent, after re-
peated applications, at last received the following
reply : — “ Regarding the nets you got for Dr.
Wood, I am desired by the party who supplied
them to say, that in consequence of the great
interest the Doctor takes in the poor of Edin-
burgh and elsewhere, they so much appreciate
his kindness and large-heartedness to their class,
that, instead of making a charge, they are proud
to have the honour of asking Dr. Wood to accept
of them as a present ; and should he require more
it will afford them the greatest satisfaction to
supply his further wants, and on the same terms.
So that you see our dear friend’s labours in
behalf of the poor are not overlooked nor un-
appreciated, even in Prestonpans.”

XII.

UNIVERSITY.

In 1858 a step was taken intended to awaken
a wider interest in the Universities of Scotland.
An Act of Parliament was passed calling into
existence the General Councils consisting of all
the graduates. The meetings were held half-
yearly, and from the outset Dr. Wood took a
prominent part in the proceedings of the Edin-
burgh Council. One of its first acts was the
election of a Chancellor. The two names pro-
posed were those of Lord Brougham by the
Liberal party, and the Duke of Buccleuck by
the Conservatives. A keen contest was carried
on, during which Dr. Wood energetically sup-
ported Lord Brougham, and seconded his
nomination on the day of election. The result
was that Lord Brougham was successful by a
decided majority.

Inside the University there was a small body,
the University Court, invested with important

UNIVERSITY.

159

powers in the management of its affairs. It was
presided over by the Chancellor, who had the
right of nominating an additional member as
Assessor. This office of Assessor gave the holder
an influential position, and Dr. Wood, in the
year 1864, was invited to accept of the appoint-
ment in the following terms : —

“After fully considering the subject (Lord
Brougham writes), I strongly incline to the
opinion that my Assessor should be a medical
man, and I beg of you to accept the office.
Whatever difficulty you may feel from your
other duties you can, at all events, make the
attempt for the present, and I write to the
Principal to mention my recpiest. I need
hardly add that my regard for the family to
which you belong will be gratified by your
acceding to my request.”

To a man of Dr. Wood’s taste such an appoint-
ment, made on such terms, could not but be
gratifying. It gave him the opportunity, not
only of showing the deep interest which he took
in the welfare of the University, but of render-
ing important service from time to time. On-
ward to the time of Lord Brougham’s death he

1G0 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

continued to hold the office, and to take a
zealous part in the proceedings of the Court.

As might have been expected, his object was
to aid in enlarging and elevating the teaching of
the University — doing away with all restrictions
which might hamper its progress. Whether in
the meetings of the Court, or of the General
Council, there was no matter bearing on the
success of the institution in which he did not
take part, and this interest in the prosperity
of his alma mater was more than once expressed
near the end of his life. ‘For the higher educa-
tion,’ he wrote in 1883, ‘Edinburgh possesses
a thoroughly well-equipped and well-manned
University. Founded three hundred years ago,
and placed by its founder, James VI., under the
fostering care of the municipality, it has flourished
and continued to attract to itself a powerful body
of professors and a numerous attendance of
students. In 1858 it was removed from the
Town-Council, and a certain amount of autonomy
was granted to it, since which, but perhaps not
on account of which, its progress has been
remarkable. In 1864 an Association for the
Better Endowment of the University was founded

UNIVERSITY.

161

by Dr. Muir, tlie Sanscrit scholar, and since then
it has been the recipient of many gifts calculated
to promote the higher learning of the students.
In the course of the last twenty years a sum of
£142,000 has been given or bequeathed for the
encouragement of the higher learning. Sixty
years ago there was absolutely no encouragement
of this kind for students in the University.
Another important stimulus to education was
the plan of Local Examinations, conducted by the
University by means of papers sent down to
various local centres. In 1883 papers were sent
to forty-seven centres. The total number of
candidates was 891; of whom 145 were male and
746 female. But the promotion of female
education has not stopped here. An Association
has been formed for the Higher Education of
Women, which has a building of its own, and
classes taught by University professors or their
assistants for English Literature, Latin, Greek,
Biblical Criticism, Logic, Moral Philosophy, Poli-
tical Economy, Theory of Education, ^Esthetics,
Mathematics, Experimental Physics, Botany,
Zoology, and Physiology/

Along with all this, however, he was not blind

L

162 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

to certain drawbacks which he would fain have
seen removed from our University system. ‘ Why/
he asks, ‘ are boys in a state of pupilage allowed
to enter the literary classes, thus degrading the
teaching, and causing it to lose its proper
character, that it may adapt itself to the neces-
sities of boys who should still be preparing for
College at a gymnasium ?

‘ Why, notwithstanding its condemnation in
the admirable report of 1830, and the strong
opinion of every competent, unbiassed judge,
are teachers still allowed to examine their own
students for degrees ?

‘ Why, with the great and most satisfactory
increase in the attendance on the classes, is the
tutorial element not increased in like proportion,
so as to secure adequate instruction to each
member of the class ?

‘ Eventually there is no doubt that these
errors in the present system will be remedied.’

Speaking for himself and others he says : —
‘ As loving sons of our alma mater, while,
pointing out a few spots which still disfigure her
comely old age, we rejoice in the prosperity
which has of late been showered upon her.

UNIVERSITY.

163

Never had she a better professorial staff, never
a more numerous band of creditable students.
May she go on and prosper ; and, not resting on
past fame, great as that is, adopt every improve-
ment which will keep her in the van of in-
tellectual and professional progress.’ 1

1 Edinburgh Clinical and Pathological Journal , February 1884.

XIII.

RETIRES FROM PRACTICE — TRAMWAYS.

In the midst of these numerous avocations
which we have described, Dr. Wood had all the
time to attend to a large and increasing practice.
Sometimes from thirty to forty professional visits
a day were required before he could overtake his
list of patients. It was no wonder if even his
vigorous frame began ere long to give way
under the burden of such work. Hardly had he
got beyond middle life when he was struck down
while in London by what seemed an attack of
angina pectoris. Sir William Gull, indeed,
gave him good hope. “ Happily,” he wrote, “ for
one case of the substantive form of this affection
— if I may so express it — we have an hundred of
the less serious adjective form — many anginous
affections for one case of angina. I trust you
may experience this, and that by care you may
be able to ward off a recurrence of the symptoms.”
The result seemed in a great measure to justify

RETIRES FROM PRACTICE TRAMWAYS. 165

these anticipations. After a season of anxiety
Dr. Wood recovered, but from time to time,
amid the work and worry of future years, he was
subject to similar attacks in a modified form.
This chest affection soon began seriously to
interfere with his professional practice. The
work of climbing stairs to reach the bedrooms
of his patients became difficult, and added to this
there was a growing deafness which made the
effective use of the stethoscope impossible.
Gradually he began to feel unable to carry
on the practice of his profession with satisfaction
to himself, or with justice to his patients.
Accordingly, in 1872, he assumed as his partner
a highly accomplished physician and surgeon,
Dr. Alexander Miller, son of the well-known
Professor Miller ; and at the age of fifty-five Dr.
Wood began to retire from medical practice.

Shut out thus from the work of his life, he
might, if he had chosen, have given himself up
to enjoyment and ease. But for a mind so full
of activity and energy, this was simply impos-
sible ; and he found occupation not only in the
philanthropic works to which we have referred,
but in various commercial enterprises. Among

166 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

these, however, it was chiefly to the management
of the Edinburgh Tramway Company that he
devoted his energies.

Like many other improvements, the tramway
system had, at the outset, to encounter strong
opposition. To the upper classes, who drove
their private carriages, the street-rails were par-
ticularly objectionable, and still more perhaps to
the shopkeepers in those leading streets through
which the cars had to pass. The opposition was
formidable, but the convenience to the public
was great, and for a time the tramways were
said to be the most abused and the most used
institution in Edinburgh. The cause had to be
fought out in Parliamentary Committees and
before the Courts of Law, and, during the time it
was going on, the management of the Company’s
affairs involved much anxious and laborious
work. Through all this, Dr. Wood, as chairman,
stood to his post ; and after the tramway system
had been fully established, he continued to give
much time and thought to the management of
the Company’s affairs.

It might have been supposed that his early
training having been so different, he would have

RETIRES FROM PRACTICE TRAMWAYS. 167

Jbeen little fitted for conducting the details of
such a business. But the habit of doing with all
his might what his hand found to do, followed
him into this new sphere of work. It brought
him in contact with some of the ablest business
men in London ; one of whom, Mr. Morris of
Old Jewry, gives his estimate of Dr. Wood’s
qualifications in the following terms : — “ My
first introduction to him was when he was
Chairman of the Tramway Company, in which
he showed business qualifications of no common
order, not only in the working out of details,
but in the mastering of principles which was
very surprising for one whose previous ex-
perience had been in very different walks of life.
As a friend I knew no one whom I would sooner
consult on any question of doubt or difficulty;
and I have on many occasions had the benefit of
his sound and experienced advice.”

Thus he watched over the interests of the
Conqpany until it was firmly established, doing
all that his well-known ability and experience
enabled him to do on its behalf. The lines,
however, continued to extend, the work accumu-
lated, and, in the meantime, the disease under

1G8 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

which he suffered was silently making progress.
Often and earnestly his friends had been urging
him to retire, but he shrank from a life of
inaction. At last the attacks of illness increased
in frequency, coming on from time to time with
alarming suddenness, and on one occasion he was
driven home from the office insensible. This
state of matters, it was obvious, could not con-
tinue. At last, to the great relief of all who
knew him best, his connection with the tramways
came to an end, and he retired, to spend in the
privacy of his home the few years that yet re-
mained to him of life.

XIV.

PUBLIC SPEAKING.

His powers as a speaker in addressing public
meetings, especially those for philanthropic
objects, were well known in Edinburgh. The
eloquence of his language, the force of his
appeals and arguments, and the easy fluency
with which he expressed himself, made him one
of the most effective public speakers of his day.
Of this it is difficult, as in other cases of the
same kind, to give an idea by extracts — so
much depends on the personality of the man,
the tones of the voice, and the power of adapt-
ing himself to the feelings of his audience. As
a single example, however, we may give a speech
— imperfectly reported — which he delivered, in
1882, in favour of an institution at Larbert for
the Education of Imbecile Children. At the
Annual Meeting, held in Edinburgh, Dr. Wood
was unexpectedly called on to move one of the
resolutions. He said — * It often happens at

170 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

public meetings, just at the supreme moment,
that the performer is prevented from appearing.
This has, unfortunately, been the case to-day.
Dr. Walter Smith, who was to have moved the
first resolution, and who would have surrounded
it with an aroma of poetry and genius, has
unfortunately been prevented from coming, and
I have been requested to take his place, a task
for which I feel so totally inadequate that I
must throw myself on your forbearance.

‘ As a medical man, the first thing that strikes me
in the report is, that you have ceased to consider
it necessary to employ a medical superintendent.
I rejoice in this. The number of eminent men
in any one profession who would be willing to
deny themselves its highest honours and emolu-
ments, and devote their time and talents to a
work, in one sense so trying, must be small
indeed ; and therefore the directors would,
probably, be forced to take inferior men, to the
great loss of the institution. But the Gordian
knot has been cut, and nothing will tend more
to the spread of such useful and beneficial insti-
tutions than the extension of the area from which
their superintendents can be elected. It has

PUBLIC SPEAKING.

171

been a great mistake to confound idiocy with
lunacy, and to regard them both as diseases of
the brain, requiring constant medical supervision.
I trust I will not be suspected of the slightest
leaning toward Materialism if I admit that the
brain and the nervous system are the means by
which alone the mind can communicate with the
external world. In insanity this delicate organ
is perverted, while in idiocy its development is
simply arrested. The idiot is a child whose
mental faculties are undeveloped. I am not
here to say that this may not have been pro-
duced by malformation of the brain, or of the
case which contains it. Be it so — no medical
skill, no daily or hourly watching, can alter
lesions like these ; such cases manifestly demand
the skill of an educator — of one who can draw
out the rudimentary faculties, and bestow on
them a firmer grasp.

* If I were to select a man for such an
office I would chose one whose mild eye and
benevolent countenance attracted children and
animals to him. I would choose one round
whom clustered the weak, the fallen, the anxious,
and the weeping ; one as like as possible to his

172 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Divine Master — the kindliest, the most sym-
pathetic of the children of men, who sought out
human wretchedness that He might relieve it,
and of whom His greatest praise was what His
enemies regarded as a reproach, that He was the
friend of publicans and sinners. The nearer the
superintendent approaches to this ideal the more
successful will his labours be.

‘ The next thing I notice in the report is, that
you propose to extend the usefulness of the insti-
tution by increasing the number of its inmates.
I have to tell this meeting, and through it the
public, that this will demand increased funds, and
surely we will not plead for this in vain. • Ah,
think of that highest moment in a woman’s life,
when she clasps her first-born in her arms, and
looks forward to his happy future, pictures to
herself the unfolding of his mental powers, the
development of his warm affections, and already
fancies him the honoured and respected means
of transmitting her own and her partner’s gifts
and graces to the next generation. But slowly
and sadly the fear steals upon her that all is not
right, that these faculties are not developing,
and then she has to look with sadness, though

PUBLIC SPEAKING.

173

often with undoubted love, upon this wreck of
all her hopes. Idiocy is a hereditary disease,
so that often not one, but two or three members
of the same family are afflicted by it. De-
spair enters the dwelling. Weighed down by
their heavy affliction, the parents become care-
less, brothers and sisters mock, insult, torment
— the life of the poor imbecile is one of sorrow
and of the deepest degradation. But ‘removed
to such an asylum as that for which I now
plead, comfort, and even happiness, becomes
his lot ; the dawning faculties are nursed and
stimulated ; the energy which, for want of con-
trol, displayed itself in mischief, is diverted into
useful channels ; and the mind and soul receive
the cultivation of which they are capable. And
when I speak of the soul let me, in all solemnity,
remark, that though its intercourse with this
world may be limited by the cottage of clay in
which it is here confined, yet when trans-
planted, even in its embryo state, to a higher
and nobler state of existence, it may bud
and blossom with a rapidity almost incon-
ceivable, so that their angels may in the New
Jerusalem have a place near the Father’s throne,

174 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

and there sing the praises of Him who hath
called them out of darkness into His marvellous
light.5

It was not without reason that one of the
speakers who followed — Dr. Whyte of St.
George’s — referred to the ability with which Dr.
Wood had spoken, and the singular pathos
with which he had described the inmates of the
institution with their glimmering intelligence.
He expressed a hope that the speech might be
widely circulated.

XV.

EETEOSPECT.

Ix one of the last years of liis life he wrote a
paper in which he rapidly sketched the advances
which had been made in various directions
during the last sixty years. The wonders of
steam, electricity, photography, etc., are elo-
quently dwelt on, but we confine ourselves to
the incidental notices which he gives from his
own experience and observation.

‘ The lighting of the houses and streets sixty
years ago was a very different matter from what
it is now.

‘ In houses candles made of tallow, with thick
wicks of cotton, or lamps supplied with train oil,
were the usual means of illumination, except on
festive occasions, when candles made of wax —
very expensive and yielding not too bright a
light — were substituted. Beside each pair of
candles stood a tray — silver or brass, as the case
might be — on which was set an instrument called

176 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

a pair of snuffers, which may be described as a
pair of scissors, to cut off from time to time the
charred and superfluous wick, to which a small
box for containing the refuse was attached. It
would be difficult to calculate how much of a
student’s time was wasted, or how the flow of his
ideas was interrupted, by this process, which
required to be repeated at short intervals.

c Our street lamps were vessels of train oil,
having a tube at either end, down which passed
a cotton wick. These were suspended in dim
glass globes on the top of iron pillars, giving an
uncertain light. The lamplighter rushed about,
dripping oil in all directions, and the light
afforded was glimmering and uncertain.

‘ The means of procuring a light also were
clumsy and ineffective. The domestic servant,
whose fire had burned itself out during the hours
of slumber, had to grope about for the round
tin-box, containing a flint and piece of steel and
a quantity of tinder, and then to elicit sparks
by striking flint and steel together. She had
patiently to wait until a spark caught the
tinder, when at last the needful means of
obtaining light and heat were procured, but in a

RETROSPECT.

1 77

very different way from the ready match-box
we now use. There were, however, costly
instantaneous light producers ; but not only did
their expense prohibit their general use, but
they were supposed to be, and really were,
dangerous. They were contained in elegant
ornamental cases. The matches had adhering to
their points a mixture of chlorate of potass and
sugar, and were ignited by being dipped into a
bottle of oil of vitriol, also contained in the box.
It is curious that this old-fashioned way of
producing light has been revived in our day for
exploding the dynamite in those infernal
machines by which public buildings in London
and Glasgow were injured.

‘ In Edinburgh the first gas used for domestic
illumination was distilled from animal oil. It
was sent out condensed in metal vessels fitted
with stopcocks. When the stopcock was opened,
the condensed gas expanding escaped, and was
lighted at the orifice, burning as long as the gas
escaped. Large and costly works at Tanfield,
Canonmills, were erected for its preparation.
Carts removed the empty gasholders, and left
full ones at the houses of the subscribers, making

7 O

M

178 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

their calls as regularly as the milkmen. It is
interesting to note this costly process has been
revived again, and a patent taken out for it by
Mr. Pricker, who supplies to railway carriages
vessels of condensed mineral gas which they
carry along with them, giving a better light
than the paraffin in ordinary use. He, however,
condenses the oil gas procured from shale, a
modern discovery.

‘The population of Edinburgh was then, of
course. less than it is now, but still the increase
of building is out of proportion to the increase of
population, clearly evidencing that each class is
demanding to be better lodged than their fathers
and grandfathers.

‘ I wonder what one of our well-to-do shop-
keepers in Princes Street or George Street would
say now if asked to live in a flat three stairs up in
such streets as Richmond Street, or that network
of old narrow streets running between Nicolson
Street and Clerk Street on the west, and the
Pleasance on the east ; and yet many of their
predecessors lived there and brought up their
families peacefully and contentedly ; and if they
thought of villas at Newington, the Grange,

RETROSPECT.

179

Merchiston, or Trinity, with conservatories and
vineries, it was hut in their dreams, and as merely
pleasant castles in the air.

‘ Some of the old places that have disappeared
one cannot but regret, but our fathers were
neither aesthetically nor archaeologically inclined ;
and indeed, with the drum and fife ever sounding
in their ears, and a dread of invasion disturbing
the peace of their hearths and homes, they had
no time to waste on anything but the practical.
Had we possessed those lost treasures we would
not willingly have let them go. St. Roques’
Chapel, for example ; St. Margaret’s Convent ; the
village of Broughton, with its old jail and
Witches’ Howf — we would give a great deal to
restore them now. Alas ! improvement and
archseology seem irreconcilable. Have we
gained anything like what we have lost by
straightening the West Bow, thus effectually
destroying the picturesque twisted road by which
Porteous was hurried to his untimely fate, and
the house of mysterious dread, where the wizard
W eir and his awful sister dwelt ? What the
men of taste, the architects of those days, con-
sidered tasteful restoration, let the marred

180 MEMOIR OF OR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

exterior of old St. Giles’ Church bear witness; or
of their taste in general, let the churn-like tower
on Calton Hill, sacred to the memory of Nelson,
be an example ; or that lump of masonry, St.
Stephen’s Church.

‘ Another very well-marked change is that,
sixty years ago, almost every country family had
a house in Edinburgh, where they lived during
the sitting of the Courts of Law, or the college or
school sessions, only retiring to their country
houses during vacation times. Now all that is
changed. Those who do come to Edinburgh
take rooms in lodging-houses, or hire a furnished
house for a few months ; while the facilities given
for travelling by the rapidity and comparative
cheapness of railways, render removal to London
during the season as easy, and not more expen-
sive, than that to Edinburgh used to be, while it
offers superior attractions to pleasure-seekers.

‘ The increase of luxury, which is so marked a
feature of the progress of the last sixty years,
has spread downwards in the social scale. The
artisan class are no longer contented writh the
dwellings or the fare which, satisfied their fathers.
They live in a different style, and demand a

RETROSPECT.

181

corresponding increase of pay. Butcher-meat
was seldom seen, except once a-week, in a
mechanic’s house. Now it forms part of his
daily regimen. In consequence of this, and the
increase of population, the price of butcher-meat
has nearly doubled.

‘ I remember in my young days I used to spend
the school-holidays in the east of Fife, and was
generally there during the harvest season. Then
coarse bannocks of oatmeal were prepared for the
reapers, which, as children, we greatly relished.
Such humble fare is now quite unknown. The
harvest workers will not condescend to eat any-
thing but the finest wheaten bread. This change
is certainly to be regretted, for the fine flour
prepared by the French and German processes
is deficient in the silica which supplies so im-

i

portant an element of the harder tissues of the
body. It would be better were more of the
husk of the wheat eaten, which is to some extent
secured in bread made of second flour.’

He describes the revolution made by the
introduction of the penny -postage : — ‘ Those
who did not live or correspond before 1839 will
scarcely believe the greatness of the change.

182 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

My mother’s family lived in the east of Fife,
and every letter cost sevenpence -halfpenny ; so
that every means of private conveyance, albeit
illegal, was resorted to. Between Edinburgh
and London the charge was, I think, one shilling
and fourpence, or something like that. In 1839
the uniform rate of fourpence was introduced,
and in 1840 this was reduced to a penny.’

In illustrating the foolish system of bounties
and prohibitions, he states that, up to 1721, ‘ The
making or selling of cotton goods was a crime
punishable by law; and up to 1774 no article
could be woven entirely of cotton. One-half at
least of all the threads must be linen ; while, to
stimulate the woollen manufacture, no corpse
could be put in a coffin for interment swathed in
anything but woollen. Hence arose the manu-
facture of a thin and worthless fabric called dead
flannel. I well remember in my younger days,
among the notice-boards still visible, of “A
mangle kept here,” or “ Mangling done by the
hour or piece,” it being interspersed with others
with broad, black mourning borders, bearing the
inscription, “ Dead clothes made here.”’

Referring to the triumphs of Free Trade, he

RETROSPECT.

183

says : ‘ While Adam Smith was thus teaching our
rulers the foundation of the future greatness of
the country, machinery was beginning to super-
sede manual labour by which most goods were
manufactured ,. that is, made by hand. In the
quaint villages of the East Neuk of Fife, among
which as a boy I spent most of my school-holidays,
the linen manufacture, with Kirkcaldy as its
centre, was dominant. In almost every house
there, except those inhabited by fishermen, the
sound of the busy shuttle could be heard ; while
on the pleasant summer evenings the wives and
daughters would be seen outside their doors
plying the busy and now obsolete (except in the
royal palace) spinning-wheel, for the linen trade
was slow to adopt the power-loom. Now all this
is silent — looms have been broken up for fire-
wood, spinning-wheels have wholly disappeared,
unless when some lady of fashion takes to them
for an amusement.

‘ And now let me inquire what has been the
result of all these improvements on the people,
for this after all is the real test. It may be
premised that we are passing through a period
of commercial and agricultural depression [1883],

184 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

which either in its depth or its duration has
rarely, if ever, been equalled ; and that therefore
there may be a tendency to take a somewhat
gloomy view of the future. Still it is evident
that the industrial eminence which this country
has so long maintained was founded {first) on
the inventions of which she was the author,
and of which for long she had the exclusive
use ; ( second ) on the vast reservoirs of power to
use her machinery which lay stored up under
her soil ; {third) on the high character so long
maintained by the British manufacturer, which
was the guarantee for the intrinsic value of the
goods which he supplied. Is all this being
changed ? Certainly the virtual monopoly of
the mechanical appliances which we long en-
joyed, and on which our industrial greatness was
founded, is passing away. Is our present deep
and prolonged depression because our country
has ceased to fulfil the destiny for which she
has been exalted by Providence for carrying the
knowledge of the one true God and His blessed
Gospel through the world ?

‘ Is it that she herself has become a traitor to
her old beliefs, and, in the pride of intellect and

RETROSPECT.

185

disdain of science, is casting off the authority of
her Creator ?

‘ Is the struggle for political liberty making us
forget the religious liberty for which our fathers
fought and bled and died ? Are we being
enslaved under the yoke of bondage which they
were not able to bear ?

‘ Are virtue and religion, the two props on
which Bishop Berkeley long ago told us true
liberty rests, decaying ; and has our so-called
liberty got the gilded chains of a deeper and
more degrading bondage ? These are questions
for the politician and the philanthropist to
ponder. The development and progress of any
nation necessarily depends on those laws of
Nature which the God of nations has Himself
imposed. They are silent : they are irresistible :
they work without pause : they know no change,
eternal as He who framed them. Men are in
the hands of the Almighty as clay in those of the
potter — the responsible instruments by which He
carries out His eternal and inscrutable decrees.
One law, the truth of which has been proved in all
ages, is that (Prov. xiv. 34), “ Kighteousness exalt-
eth a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” ’

XVI.

HOME LIFE.

His home life none could know but those who
were admitted to his familiar intercourse, or who
from time to time were guests under his roof.
‘Very strangely,’ one of his friends has said,
‘ would it have struck his opponents in public
life,1 if, after the keen conflicts of some day of
excitement, they could have seen the formidable
debater in the evening, at his own fireside, un-
bending in the atmosphere of home, responding
in all gentleness to every kind word and playful
remark in the freedom of the domestic circle.’

‘ The special feature, however, of his private
life was not merely its quiet happiness ; the
great aim which he constantly kept in view was
the mental and religious improvement of those
around him, while providing for their refined

1 The paragraphs which immediately follow are chiefly in the
language of the friend who has kindly contributed these remini-

scences.

HOME LIFE.

187

intellectual enjoyment. Usually during those
happy hours some subject of study was pursued.
He would read some chosen author, one of the
ancient classics it might be, or some well-known
English poet, or some of the newest literature of
the day, or some selections from Shakespeare.’

It was pleasant to listen — for he read as few
could read — and still more pleasant when he was
pointing out and discussing the merits of his
favourite authors ; and whether the subject were
grave or gay, few could fail to sympathise with
his remarks, often full of high thought, or spark-
ling with genial humour. Sometimes the books
would be closed, and graphic stories, gathered
from the many strange phases of his active bene-
volent life, would hold his hearers in thrall. At
other times simple natural talk would take the
place of books, and light playful fancies would
pass around the little circle. Such would be the
evenings when a friend or two were sharing the
hospitality of his home ; but the many peaceful
happy seasons, when none but the conrpanion
of his long married life was by his side, cannot
be dwelt on by the pen of even his dearest
friends.

188 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

‘ When the long winter evenings were over,
and the bright days of summer had come, it was
his joy to wander along the hillside, or away
through meadows and woods, with often a volume
of some favourite poet in his pocket. His delight
in Nature was keen ; and even in advancing years
something of the joyousness of boyhood would
return as his eyes rested on a fair landscape.’

Such was the light in which he appeared to
those who knew him most intimately, but it was
not mere intellectual enjoyment he aimed at.
Those around him had often no light mental
work to go through. One young relative, who
lived for a time under his roof, for exanrple, he
carefully instructed in arithmetic, sparing him-
self no pains in teaching her. Two other friends

he taught Latin till they were able to read to-

«

gether, and enjoy Virgil , his favourite among
the ancient classic poets. With another he care-
fully studied and analysed the Analogy of Butler.
His wife, along with one of her friends, went
through a long course of reading in mental philo-
sophy under his guidance. And all this went
on during the busy years of his life. It was his
relaxation. When congenial minds gathered

HOME LIFE.

189

round him, he had a positive enjoyment in the
act of teaching. One thing was his special
delight, the analysing of a complex subject.
‘ Often when we were alone,’ Mrs. Wood says,
‘ as he was lying on the sofa, wearied out with
some hard day’s work, he employed his time in
elaborating analytical papers, chiefly on religious
points, dictating to me as he lay. Come away
now, he would say, when some subject presented
itself, and we will break this down, and see
what it is composed of. This kind of mental
exercise was one of his greatest pleasures.’

£ Yet another trait of character must not be
forgotten — his ever-ready sympathy with the joys
and sorrows, the interests and ambitions, of the
friends who gathered round him. This they re-
lied on, and his active and willing assistance was
ever forthcoming in small matters as in great.
Many a friend and friend’s friends have had
cause to remember gratefully his large-hearted
sympathy and unfailing helpfulness.’

Such had been his home-life even during his
busiest years ; but when other burdens had been
laid aside, the intellectual activity to which he
had been accustomed had all the freer scope.

190 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

To some extent he still worked for the public.
The College of Physicians, from which he had re-
tired on giving up practice, was threatened with
dangers similar to those of a former time, and
again he took his place more than once in the
midst of his brethren, prepared to give what
counsel and help he could.

When Sir Alexander Grant’s book appeared,
narrating the history of the University of Edin-
burgh, he reviewed it on the medical side in two
papers,1 such as few but himself could have
written, pointing out certain defects, but full,
at the same time, of generous appreciation and of
warm regard for the interests of his Alma Mater.
It was the last piece of literary work which came
from his pen.

What chiefly occupied him, however, during
the closing years of life was the study of
the Bible, and the interests of the church and
congregation with which he was connected.
Having gone to reside in the district of Grange,
he attached himself to the ministry of Dr.
Horatius Bonar, and resumed the office of the

1 Edinburgh Clinical and Pathological Journal, 3 an. and Feb. 1884.

HOME LIFE.

191

eldership, which, during the busiest period of
life, he had resigned. As in his early years, he
still delighted to teach Bible classes ; and he was
able, as Dr. Bonar states, “from his large
knowledge of Scripture, to illustrate Bible truths
with clearness and power. He had, at the time
of his death, projected a most comprehensive
series of lessons for the class which he commenced
on Thursday afternoons — a series of lessons
which were fitted to draw out the powers of his
students, and teach them how to search the
Scriptures for themselves.” His fellow-elders
speak of his zeal for the welfare of the congrega-
tion. “ In much bodily infirmity he laboured
earnestly in his Master’s cause. . . . Always

ready at the call of duty to take his full share
in whatever work might be assigned to him.
Unselfish and large-hearted, he took a deep
concern in every religious and benevolent
scheme.”

But while willing thus to work as he was
able, his chief occupation during these years was
the study of the Bible. This had long been his
practice. “The part of his home life,” Mrs.
Wood states, “which I think so peculiarly

192

MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

characteristic of him, was that even in the midst
of his many arduous duties he found time for
years to make — I may say — a profound study of
his Bible. He used to rise early in the mornings
and study hard before going out to his public
duties ; and eleven bound volumes of his MS.
notes bear testimony to his industry.”

In these studies it was no slight or superficial
examination that would satisfy his mind. His
own library contained an amount of theological
literature not common among laymen ; but as he
went on with the study of the different books of
Scripture — especially during those later years —
the libraries of his clerical friends — experto crede
— were heavily laid under contribution. The
result was seen in the explanatory remarks with
which he accompanied the reading of the Bible
at family prayers, and the pains he took — to an
extent quite unusual — with the religious instruc-
tion of the servants under his roof. It may be
added that in his views of inspiration, and in his
doctrinal beliefs, he adhered with unshaken faith-
fulness to the evangelical system in its strictly
orthodox form. The truth, once delivered to
the saints, was the foundation of all his hope.

XVII.

life’s closing prospects.

It was to the young men of the Literary
Association of Grange Free Church that he
gave the Address from which, in the earlier part
of this sketch, we have so largely quoted. The
whole paper was bright and genial, sparkling
all over with the stirring reminiscences of an
active life. But the closing words are in a strain
of graver thoughtfulness, in which he opens out
the feelings that were nearest to his heart, and
shows the sentiments with which he was him-
self looking forward to the few months of life
that yet remained to him. The reader will re-
member that the whole passage was written on
the spur of the moment at the request of the
Association. He thus concludes :

‘ And now my task is ended. I have done my
best to awaken some interest in the memories
of the past, and in a state of things very different

from that by which we are now surrounded. I have

N

194 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

taken you along with me through the spring and
summer of life. What shall I say of its autumn ?
Will you still journey with me ? No ! Are its
skies too lowering, its tints too sombre, the fallen
leaves which strew its path too depressing, its
calm too severe ? Is it too sad a thing to see
strong men bowing themselves, the grasshopper
becoming a burden, desire failing, the silver cord
loosening, the golden bowl breaking ?

‘Does it try the proud spirit to find, that
with eyes grown dim, senses blunted, the natural
force abated, it can no longer attempt tasks
which, in the spring-time of life, were undertaken
with pleasure and accomplished with ease ?

‘Yes, to the untutored eye, autumn presents
only leaden skies and a dull outlook on heavy
damps and mists, with the cold winter of the
grave in prospect.

‘ And yet, to those who can read its signs
aright, autumn is a season of preparation, ay,
and of hope. Nature has then no active duties
to trouble it. The bustle of the year is over,
the harvest has been gathered, and slowly and
silently — it may be sadly — she is lying fallow
recruiting her strength, and accumulating those

life’s closing prospects.

195

vital forces which shall enable her to burst forth
in new strength and beauty in the coining
spring.

‘And is there no analogy between this and
the autumn of man’s life ? Assuredly there is.
Over this world of struggle, decay, and death,
the promise of immortality is largely writ, and
behind the gathering gloom of heaviest clouds is
the silver lining that speaks of a resurrection
morning. Thus at the evening time there shall
be light.

c Be it yours, then, to remember the seasons
and their appointed lessons as they rapidly roll
by you. In the morning sow the seed — seed
which will bear fruit in old age.

c “ In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat
bread” is the curse, changed by God’s grace
however into a blessing. This is the condition
of life for every member of the human family,
and therefore I would counsel young men, “ Be
diligent in business.”

‘Along with that, however, be “fervent in
spirit.” Keep alive the warmer affections of your
nature. Suffer not exclusive toil for this world aiid
mammon to dwarf your higher being, blind your

196 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

faculties and contract your hearts, transforming
you at last into cold, selfish, heartless old men,
repelling instead of attracting younger and more
generous natures.

‘ Above all, “ serving the Lord.” Laying up
treasure where neither moth nor rust can corrupt,
and where no thieves break through to steal.
Then will the autumn of your lives be golden,
and its fruit be fit for gathering into the heavenly
garner.

‘ Then as all nature falls into the lethargy of
the closing year, charged with the hope of re-
awakening in the bursting glories of spring, so
will you have the hope that maketh not ashamed,
and endure without sadness the slow but sure
wasting and decay of those powers which shall
yet rise triumphant in immortal strength and
eternal beauty, “when this mortal shall put on
immortality, and death be swallowed up in
victory.” ’

XVIII.

FINAL.

In the foregoing sketch we have endeavoured
to trace the course of Dr. Wood’s life and work,
recording the facts which may enable the reader
to form his own estimate of what manner of man
he was.

His position in the medical profession was a
very marked one. As a lecturer he had few
equals in his power of exposition. In practice
he obtained a large share of public support. His
works as a medical writer were partly contro-
versial ; partly they consisted of valuable papers
contributed to the journals. His great discovery
of the hypodermic method of administering
medicine not only put a new instrument into
the hands of the profession, now used all over the
world to give relief from bodily suffering, but has
opened up a field of medical research in which
much yet remains to be done. In London, as
we have seen, while acting as a member of the

198 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

Medical Council, he took a foremost place among
the most distinguished physicians and surgeons
from all parts of the kingdom.

In such a city as Edinburgh it seems almost
inevitable that the profession should be divided
into sections, and that more or less a spirit of
partisanship should prevail. In any conflicts
which took place, Dr. Wood, as might have been
expected, was prepared to take his share, and it
must be admitted that the certaminis gaudia
had more than usual attractions for him. His
faults — and it was not given to him more than
to other men to pass faultlessly through life —
were those which belong to ardent and energetic
natures. His force of mind and powers of debate
made him a formidable opponent. In the heat
of an argument his feelings sometimes carried
him further than he meant. In his impetuous
eagerness to gain his point he would make state-
ments, the force of which he himself was hardly
aware of, giving offence where none was intended.
It was in early life that this tendency was most
apparent ; but as time went on men not only
recognised his straightforward honesty, but the
generous feelings of his nature came more fully

FINAL.

199

into view, and he rose in the esteem even of some
of those from whom he most widely differed.

In marked contrast with such scenes of debate
was his appearance at the bedside of his patients,
where his whole bearing was that of extreme
gentleness and delicacy. In many a family and
by many a sufferer he is this day remembered,
not only as the skilful physician, but the faithful,
sympathising friend. One of his medical com-
peers who knew him best once remarked on the
strange combination which his character presented
— he had all the mental force of a strong man, along
with the tender-hearted gentleness of a woman.
It was this that fitted him to do what he did as
the determined advocate in public of what he
believed to be right, and at the same time the
sympathising physician and friend of those by
whom he was trusted and loved.

As a citizen he had a large share of public
spirit which showed itself chiefly in the sphere
of philanthropic work. It was this that induced
him to burden himself, as few of his professional
eminence would have done, with the duties of a
police commissioner, and for this end he gave
days and nights of toil to the instituting and

200 MEMOIR, OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

carrying on of the Association for the Improve-
ment of the Poor, taking not only the chief
share of the speaking, but by far the heaviest
part of the practical work.

In political life he was a Liberal, though he did
not take any very active part except in the con-
tests connected with the University, where his
support was given heartily and energetically in
aid of every Liberal movement.

As a Free Churchman his views were decided
in favour of those who left the Establishment in
1843 ; but it was in no narrow-minded spirit, as
many can testify, that he held his convictions.
Loyal to his own church, his desire was to be
candid and fair towards other denominations.

In his intercourse with society there was so
much that was genial in his conversation — always
bright and pleasing — that few met with so cordial
a welcome in the circles in which he moved. “ He
had the qualities,” Dr. Bonar has said, “ of a most
genial and affable friend, whose stores of anecdote
were inexhaustible, and whose conversational
powers were as pleasant as they were varied. To
have him for a companion, either at table or on a
journey, was to have the assurance that there

FINAL.

201

would be no dulness or weariness.” One example
of this is mentioned by Mr. Morris of London, from
his -own experience. “Dr. Wood’s acquaintance
I shall always look back on as one of the bright
experiences of my busy life. . . His experience
of the world was a well from which one could
draw without stint. I remember once going with
him from Edinburgh to Glasgow on a miserable
wintry day. We had the carriage to ourselves,
and his delightful conversation deadened all sense
of depression, and we were at Glasgow before I
thought we had done half the journey.”

In his domestic relations it is enough to say
that the marriage formed in the days of his youth
had been the great happiness of his life, and
never more than in those closing years when, in
failing health, he needed the solace of such com-
panionship. The affection which had passed
unchanged through the vicissitudes of life seemed
to grow only deeper, all the tenderness of his
nature finding its truest enjoyment in the retire-
ment of his home. Thus the close of life passed
away. The relief from business with its work,
and still more from its worry, promised for a time

to mitigate the bodily infirmity under which he

o

202 MEMOIR OF DR. ALEXANDER WOOD.

suffered ; and, looking to his strongly-built frame,
one might well have cherished the hope that not
a few years of active life might yet have been
spared to him. But troubles came which cast
a dark shadow over his home. There was the
illness of Mrs. Wood, causing him the deepest
anxiety, and then there came the sudden death
of a relative in circumstances peculiarly dis-
tressing— a blow from which he never re-
covered. After lingering for some weeks, he
died on the 26th February 1884. How the end
came will best be told in the words of his friend
and pastor, Dr. Bonar. *

“ The teaching of his class was the very last
thing in which he was engaged on the Thursday
when he was taken ill. He was little able to do
his class-work that day, but he did it, and then
lay down to die. It is a most pleasant thought
that this should have been his latest work, and
still more when we recall the lesson of that day.
It was upon Rest — God’s rest after He had finished
His creation work. After Christ had said, * It is
finished,’ He rested ; and so, after the voice had
been heard, ‘ It is done,’ the rest that remaineth
for the people of God was to be introduced. As

FINAL.

203

his last lesson was a work finished and rest begun,
so we can take this lesson to ourselves ; and, while
we rejoice that his work is finished and his rest
entered upon, we can feel how urgent the call for
us is to press forward in our course, doing our
appointed work, and anticipating the rest which
remaineth for the people of God.

“ During the last weeks of his life, weeks of
weariness, weakness, and pain, he could speak but
little, but what he did say, brokenly and by
snatches, showed that his thoughts were of things
above. ‘ Behold the Bridegroom cometh,’ he said
a,t one time ; and then at another, ‘ Peace which
passeth all understanding.’ These were his last-
audible words, indicating the inner rest of his
departing spirit — a rest which the many and sharp
trials through which he had been passing, espe-
cially during the later months of his life, had not
been able to shake. With that peace within, he
passed upward to the City of Peace above, the
rest which remaineth for the people of God.”

CAR MS.

Azure, An oak out of a mount in base proper,
between two cross crosslets fitched or.

Crest — A savage, from the loins upward, hold-
ing a club in his right hand, and wreathed about
head and loins with laurel proper.

Motto — Defetid.

This part of the Pedigree is given to illustrate
what is said (page i) as to the number of Medical
Men in the connection. Their names are in
bolder type.

WILLIAM WOOD = MARGARET, Daughter

(supposed to bo descended from
the Graiigclinuch Family), Mer-
chant Burgess of Dunbar; m.

1052, d. before March

1682.

ALEXANDER WOOD, = MARION, Heiress of Jasper

Burgess of; Edinburgh ;

10S2, d. 17U:i. Ho had ten
children— flight sons and two

I. JASPER WOOD, -
of Wareston A Curric-
hill ; to. 11th Sept.
1702, died e. 1725. He
had fourteen children
—nine sons and live
daughters.

• JEAN, Daughter of
George Rome,
W.S., and Jean
Lyle.

Johnston, of Wareston, Re-
stalrig, and Currichill, by
Marion Jackson, his Wife.

GEORGE AVOOD, ap-
pronticcd in 16SG to
his Brother (?) Alex-
ander.

WILLIAM WOOD

of Rostalrig ; entered College
of Surgeons, 80th Aug. 1710.
By a Drat marriage he had
a Daughter, Harriet, who
married James Hamilton
of Gilkcnsclouch. Ho died
c. 1764, leaving three sons
nud three daughters.

1. THOMAS WOOD
of Wareston, 6.
1706. Sold lands
to his brother
George after
1757. Died un-
married 26th Oct-
1775.

= (2) HELEN BARCLAY,
descended of the
Barclays of Drc,
Ayrshire.

THOMAS WOOD,
Farmer of Broughton
Mains, near Edin-
burgh; 6. after 1702,
d. at the age of 96.
Soven children.

TT JANET LAMB.

2. JASPER WOOD. — LANGLEY,
a Surgeon iu Eng-
land ; b. 1707 ; d.

1793, leaving an
only daughter.

. Captain JOHN WOOD, = ISOBEL, Daughter 4. GEORGE WOOD
6. 1716; lion. Burgess
of Edinburgh, 1757 ; to.

1761 ; d. 2d March 1792.

of John Philp of
Greenlaw, and co-
heiress of James
Philp, Judge of
tho Admiralty; 6.
1726, d. 1S00.

of Wareston,
170S ; alienated
the lands; d. at
Edinburgh, 1778

ANDREW WOOD, -

b. 1742; entered
College of Sur-
gcous, 26th Feb.
1769; d. 1821,
leaving two sons
and three daugh-
ters.

WOOD,
married to Mr.
Crawford.

JOHN PHILP WOOD, :
Editor of Douglas'
Peerage ; 6. 1702 ;
d. Oct. 1S3S, leaving
three sons and throe
daughters.

1. JOHN GEORGE WOOD, :
W.S., b. 1804. d. 14th
September 1865, leav-
ing five sons and four
daughters.

MARGARET,
Daughter of
Col. George
Cadell,
U.E.I.C.S.

MARION, Daughter
of John Cadell
of Tranent and
Cockenzie ; b.
1779, d. 1856.

3LIZABETH

WOOD,
married to ALEX.
CRICHTON.

AGNES WOOD, mar-
ried 1795 to Rev.
Dr. BLACK.

l. WILLIAM WOOD, MARY, Daughter of 2. ANDREW WOOD, = CATHERINE

: ELIZABETH, Daughter
of John Russell of
Roscbum * Bkthia
Campbell of Wester
Greenyards.

1. ALEXANDER WOOD^

(“ LnngSandy Wood"),
b. 1727 ; entered Col-
lege of Surgeons, 14th
Jan. 1756. Practised
at Inveresk, then at
Edinburgh. Died 1807.
He loft seven children.

entered
College of Surgeons
1st Oct. 1S05; d.

Dr. Gillespie,

Ayr, nud Sister

of Andrew Gil-
lespie, 51. D.,
Royal Infirmary,

Surgeon - General,
Indian Army ; b.
1706 ; d. 1879,
leaving two sons,
Clergymen in the
Church of Eng-
land.

3. BETHIA WOOD,
m. THOMAS
SPENS, 51. D.,
Son of Dr. Nat.
Spens, and
Grandson of
Thomas Stens
of Lathnllan.

■ VERONICA, Second
Daughter of Geo.
Chalmers, W.S.
She died in 1807,
aged 71.

1. THOJUS WOOD,
d. -Otli Aug. 17S1
aged 20.

GEORGE WOOD, — ISABELLA, Daughter

. WILLIAM WOOD.
C.A., 5.1812; lias
an only daughter.

JOHN P. WOOD, = MARGARET, Daughter
W.S. ; 5. 1847, ta. of Hcon L. Tensest,
Advocate, and Sheriff-
Suhstitutc atGroenock.

: .MARGARET,
Daughter of
Rev. Tnos.
Chalmers,
D.D.

3. ROBERT PHILP WOOD, = ANNE, Daughter
of Prof. Lock-
hart 3Iuir-
head, Glas-
gow; d. Feb.

GRACE CHALMERS WOOD.

ANDREW WOOD, M.D., = GRACE JANE,
LL.D. Ed. and Cantab., Daughter of

6. 1st Sept. 1810; entered Daniel Col-

College of Surgeons, 23d lyer, Esq. of

Sept. 1831 ; d. 24th Jan. Nexton Lodge

1881. Ten children, live and Wrexham

surviving. Hall, Norfolk.

1. JASPER 51. WOOD,
Merchant.

. PHILIP F. WOOD,
Advocate.

l. WILLIAM WOOD,

51. B., L.R.C.S.E.;
5. 1847, d. 1874.

JOHN GILLESPIE WOOD,

51. D., F.R.C.S.E., Deputy
Surgeon-General, 5. 24th
Sopt. 1816, d. 1873.

2. DANIEL COLLYER
WOOD, 6. 1849.

8- RUSSELL ELIOTT
WOOD, M B. ; 5.21st
January 1805; entered
Collcgo of Surgeons,
April 1880.

HARRIET

JOHNSTON.

31. D. ; entered
College of Sur-
geons 1784; m.
17SS ISABELLA
CA3IPBELL, and
as his Second
Wife, 3IARION,
Daughter of Gil-
bert Tnnks of
ho died
1 6th July 1832,
aged 52, [leaving
an only son.

of John Campbell
of Newfield;

2Sth July 17S9.

3. Sir ALEX. WOOD,
K.C.M.G., Governor
of tho Ionian Is-
lands; 5. 1773, d.
18th March 1847.

. WALTER WOOD, -
Merchant, Elsi-
nore ; 5. 1743, to.
1774, Burgess of
Edinburgh 1794.

=5 CHRISTIAN, Daughter
of Sir Wm, Forbes
ofPitsligo, Bart. ; d.
19th Dec. 1863, aged

ANNA, Daughter of
James Wood,
Slerchant, Elio.
She died at Edin-
burgh in 1792.

,,U

JAMES WOOD,

51. D., F.R.O.P.E.;
5. at Elsinore, 7th
June 1785; m. his
Cousin; d. at 19
Royal Circus, Edin-
burgh, 10 th Slay
1S65. Two sons and
four daughters.

ALEXANDER WOOD
of Woodcot, one of
tho Lords of Ses-
sion; 5. 1789, to.
1810. Five sons niul
two daughters.

OSWALD GILLESPIE WOOD,

31. D., L. R.C.S.E., Surgeon-
Major A.31.D.; 5. 1861.

1. GEORGE WOOD.

: JEAN ANDERSON
of Inchyra.

1. THOMAS WOOD,

Entered College of
Surgeons, 9th Dec.
1775 ; m. SIiss
ROCHEID, and
had six children,
who died unmar-
ried ; d. 1817.

3IARY, Daughter of
Alex. Wood of
Grangehill, Fife ;
6. 1783, d. 31st
Jan. 1S64.

1. Rev. WALTER WOOD,
A.3I. ; 5.1812; Minister
at Westrutlier and Elie ;
to. (1) AGNES, Daughter
of Georoe Scoit, Esq.,
of Boundary Bank, Jed-
burgh; (2) MARGARET,
Daughter of Alexander
Broad root, Esq. ; d.
1882— s.p.

2. ALEXANDER WOOD, M.D.,
F.R.C.P.E. ; 5. 10th ' Dec.
1S17 ; m. 15th Juno 1842,
REBECCA, Daughter of It.
G Massey, Esq. of CaorviUa-
Iiowe, Tipperury ; d. 20th Feb.
18S4 — s.j).

3. MARIANNE WOOD, :
6. 1814, m. 1848, <?.
9th Dec. I860. Two
surviving children.

; Rev. THOMAS BROWN,
F.R.S.E., 31iuisterat
KiuiiulT and Edin-
burgh; b. 1S11.

. LUCIA HALL WOOD,
6. 14th Oct. 1819, d.
16th June 1SS0.

8. ISABELLA WOOD = Right Hon. JOHN INGLIS,
Lord Justice-General and
Lord President.

1. JOHN J. GRAHAM BROWN,

31. D., F.R.C.P.E.; 5. 6th
September 1868 ; m. Otli Juno
1SS1, JANE PASLEY HAY,
Daughter of Ilev. David
Thoruijrn, D.D., of South
Leith. 1

2. Rev. JA3IES 5VOOD BROWN,
A.M., Free Church, Gordon ;
5. 2d Doc. 1860; m. 11th
Juno 1883, LOUISA CARO-
LINE GRAHAM, Daughter
of Rev. R. W. Stewart,
D.D., Leghorn.

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